Pakistan 'unprepared' for refugees fleeing operation against Taliban

Jon Boone

Almost half million flee planned army action in North Waziristan, with displaced and others accusing government over relief effort

That Pakistan's army was likely to unleash a military onslaught against Taliban safe havens near the Afghan border has been an open secret for months. But authorities have been condemned for a lack of preparedness for the inevitable exodus of refugees, now living in miserable conditions after fleeing fighting in North Waziristan.

About 466,000 people have poured out of the tribal agency bordering Afghanistan following the start on 15 June of a long-awaited effort to stamp out the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups who have made the region their home. There was little infrastructure awaiting the internally displaced people (IDPs) who continue to enter Bannu, a district among one of Pakistan's least developed.

Soldiers have fired live rounds to deter furious crowds of IDPs, who complain there is no shelter, not enough to eat and that they have been barred from moving to other areas of Pakistan.

Ghani Rahman, waiting at an aid distribution point in Bannu, said the government had offered nothing.

"This food is not from the Pakistan government, it is from the WFP," said the 55-year-old, referring to the UN's World Food Programme. "We are very thankful to the WFP because otherwise my family could not survive."

Other groups stepping in to fill the gap with humanitarian assistance include foreign government aid agencies and wealthy Pakistani businessmen.

IDPs complain of people charging extortionate rent for basic shelter and Islamabad's failure to hand over promised financial handouts.

Although a temporary camp has been set up in the nearby "frontier region", few have been willing to move there, arguing it is insecure. Many have instead commandeered space in government schools and colleges.

Dawn, one of Pakistan's leading newspapers, described the relief effort "as one of the more miserable and haphazard IDP management programmes in memory". The military effort, dubbed Operation Zarb-e-Azb, had long been expected following the predicted breakdown of government efforts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.

It is only the latest in a number of operations launched against militant havens over the years, all of which have created large number of refugees.

"North Waziristan has been on the anvil for a very, very long time and the government should have been prepared for every eventuality," said Afrasiab Khattak, a senator for the state in which Bannu is located. "Unfortunately in our country we only think of military aspects of an operation and no one bothers with the humanitarian crisis." The IDPs have also complained of being stopped from moving into other provinces – an illegal restriction on their right to free movement within the country.

Khattack said such behaviour would deepen grievances among Pashtuns, the ethnic group that dominates the tribal north-west of the country.

"People say IDP really only stands for 'internally displaced Pashtun'," he said. "Pashtuns are discriminated against by the rulers who regard the peripheries of the country as dispensable."

Some Pakistanis have been shocked that around 70,000 North Waziris opted to move into the eastern Afghan provinces of Khost and Paktika rather than Pakistan.

Traditionally the flow of refugees has been the other way: millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and the civil war of the 1990s, and around 2.5 million have still not returned to Afghanistan.

Bo Schack, the head of the UN refugees agency in Kabul, said the movement of IDPs into Afghanistan was "somewhat of a surprise. This is certainly the first time ever we are seeing large scale movement over to Khost and Paktika."

The refugees had been accommodated by locals and the Afghan authorities "in a very positive way", he added.

After weeks of air strikes against what were described as terrorist camps, the Pakistani army said on Wednesday that it had begun shelling Miranshah, the North Waziristan capital. The military claims it has so far killed 361 militants, although such claims are impossible to verify.

A large ground offensive had been delayed while the army sought to evacuate civilians from the area. Although military checkpoints were designed to trap militants inside the tribal agency, it is likely many have slipped through hidden among civilians.

While IDPs who spoke to the Guardian all hoped to return home in a matter of months, the army is likely to encounter stiff resistance in the weeks to come. Nearly all of the previous operations mounted against militants have left thousands permanently cut off from their home.

Most glaring are the people displaced by a massive operation in South Waziristan in 2009 which Pakistan's army has long hailed as a success. Many are yet to return to their homes.

Khalid Munir, a retired colonel who served in the tribal region, said a successful operation in the last of the Taliban's safe havens would bring long-awaited security to neighbouring Southern Waziristan too. "The foreign militants remaining in North Waziristan have nowhere to run," he said. "They will have to fight, allowing the operation to move much faster than in South Waziristan."