Over 670,000 flee fresh Pakistan fighting: UN

FE Team | Published: May 14, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

ISLAMABAD, May 13 (AFP): The number of people who have fled fighting i northwest Pakistan and registered with authorities in the last 11 days has jumped to more than 670,000, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.
"The new figure of registered people since May 2 for the new influx is 670,906. That breaks down to... 79,842 in the camps and 591,064 out of camps," UNHCR spokeswoman Ariane Rummery told AFP.
Those who were not sheltering in camps may be renting homes, staying with friends or relatives, or camping out elsewhere, Rummery said.
The total number of those displaced by the latest fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban was likely to be higher.
The refugees are trying to escape the military bombardments of Islamist extremists who are dug into three districts in northwest Pakistan.
Wednesday's number was up from the 501,496 people who had registered as of late Tuesday.
They join another 500,000 civilians who fled previous fighting in Pakistan's troubled northwest last year, taking the total number of displaced people in the nuclear-armed Muslim country to more than one million.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani Wednesday ordered his troops to minimise civilian casualties even if they had to take risks while battling Taliban militants in the northwest.
He also directed "precision strikes" in the offensive that has already displaced hundreds of thousands of people from the Taliban-held Swat valley and adjoining areas since May 8, officials said.
The general "has instructed the army to ensure minimum collateral damage even at the expense of taking risks, by resorting to precision strikes," a military statement said.
Up to 15,000 security forces are taking on about 4,000 well-armed fighters in Swat in what Islamabad says is a battle to "eliminate" Islamist militants, branded by Washington as the greatest terror threat to the West.
Overall, the military says 751 militants and 29 troops have been killed in its operations in Lower Dir, Buner and Swat, although there is no independent confirmation of the figures and no word on civilian losses.