PAKISTAN: Residents fleeing from Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where the government has launched a military operation to flush out insurgents, appeal to authorities to open up roads so that they can move their families to safety

Record ID: 842204

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Residents fleeing from Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where the government has launched a military operation to flush out insurgents, appeal to authorities to open up roads so that they can move their families to safety
  • Date: 18th June 2014
  • Summary: BANNU, PAKISTAN (JUNE 17, 2014) (REUTERS) VAN DRIVING ALONG BANNU-MIRANSHAH ROAD ROAD SIGN SHOWING DISTANCES TO WAZIRISTAN TOWNS OF MIR ALI AND MIRANSHAH MILITARY HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD VEHICLE PILED HIGH WITH HOUSEHOLD GOODS CHILDREN SITTING AMID HOUSEHOLD GOODS INSIDE VEHICLE SHER DARAZ, WHO FLED FROM MIR ALI WITH 18 FAMILY MEMBERS, STANDING IN COMPOUND OF GOVERNMEN
  • Embargoed: 3rd July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9I4009VXJ5DMCKSQLLR1Z6TJM
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Pakistani families fleeing from areas bordering Afghanistan have been appealing to the government to open up roads so that they can move their loved ones to safety.
    After months of dithering, Pakistan's army has launched an offensive against Taliban insurgents near the border with Afghanistan but the tough terrain, a potentially hostile local population, and risk of revenge attacks in heartland cities could be more difficult to conquer than the militants.
    Pakistan announced on Sunday (June 15) that it was sending ground forces, artillery and helicopter gunships to the remote, mountainous tribal region of North Waziristan in a long-awaited military operation designed to eliminate the al Qaeda-linked insurgents.
    They have blocked roads surrounding those areas, displacing separated family members trying to move to safer parts of the country.
    Last Tuesday (June 10), 50-year-old Sher Daraz gathered his family of 18, which included two brothers with their wives and children and an ailing mother, into two hired vehicles and quietly drove out of Mir Ali.
    Not having enough money to rent a house, Daraz and his family took shelter inside a government school in Bannu that was closed for the summer holidays.
    Daraz, who did not want to speak on camera, said he believes the military operation will drag on, but that he was grateful to God that he managed to get his family out on time.
    Truck driver Bilal Khan, from Shakai, was not so lucky.
    He had taken a truckload of goods to Karachi, and only got back to Bannu when the roads to Waziristan were blocked by the army.

    "They are neither opening the road going up (towards Waziristan), nor the road going (towards the rest of the country). We appeal to the government to open the road (towards Waziristan) for us so that we can go home and get our families out of there. We have been waiting here with our vehicles for eight days now, waiting to bring our families out. We want permission to go up (towards Waziristan) so that we can pull our families and tribes out of there,' he said.
    Others said vehicles loaded with people had been stopped at various places by authorities.

    "The entire traffic is stranded. Some vehicles are loaded with people, with tribal people. They have been stopped by force. They are in great distress. If the government considers us its own people, they should be kind enough to open the roads for us," said Rasuli Jan, a truck driver from Miranshah.
    The army said troops had cordoned off militant bases, including the town of Mirali where ethnic Uzbek and other foreign fighters are based, and the regional city of Miranshah.
    Pakistan's army chief, Raheel Sharif, has said the operation would continue until "all terrorists along with their sanctuaries" were eliminated but gave no specific timeline.
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