Pakistan

Panicked residents flee northwest Pakistan

Article published on the 2009-05-05 Latest update 2009-05-05 14:25 TU

Mingora, the main town in the Swat valley
(Picture: RFI)

Large numbers of residents in the Swat Valley in north west Pakistan left the area in panic, after the army issued an order for four neighbourhoods to be evacuated. The neighbourhoods were on the edge of Mingora, the main town in the Taliban-dominated area. Overnight clashes in Mingora were said to have endangered a shaky peace deal in the valley. Thousands of people living in the Kambar, Rahimabad, Makan Bagh and Amankot neighbourhoods were told to leave, over the public address system.

 

The order was immediately retracted and the military told residents to stay at home as the government had no immediate plans to launch an operation in the area.

Correspondent Omar Waraich in Islamabad says there are increasingly visible violations of a peace accord signed in February which may change the army's position."There are signs they may move into the Swat Valley  but one thing holding them back is that they have to work under the civilian government. The government is still trying to work through the peace agreement. But as far as most observers are concerned, the peace deal is all but dead."

Earlier, a suicide bomber rammed a car into the back of an army vehicle near the city of Peshawar killing four civilians and a soldier. Twenty one people were also wounded in the attack.

The deadly attack comes on the eve of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's first face-to-face talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama.

Washington is concerned that Taliban militants in the area are threatening the country's existence.

And a Pakistan court has acquitted two men sentenced to death over a bombing in 2002 that killed 11 French engineers and three Pakistanis.

Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Rizwan, who allegedly belonged to an al-Qaeda-linked extremist group, Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi, were arrested in December 2002, seven months after the attack outside the Sheraton hotel in the financial hotel Karachi.

The anti-terror court found that the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond any reasonable doubt.