Pakistan offensive displaces 268,000 people: UN

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – More than a quarter of a million people have fled Pakistan's latest military offensive against Taliban insurgents in the tribal South Waziristan region, the United Nations said Wednesday.

About 30,000 troops pushed into the area along the Afghan border in mid-October, under orders to eliminate the strongholds of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement deep in the hostile mountain terrain.

Tens of thousands of people have been gathering their families and fleeing the area and into neighboring districts for months, fearing that their homes may be razed and civilians caught in the crossfire.

"Records for internally displaced people from South Waziristan in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank have now been verified by the National Database and Registration Authority," the UN refugee agency said in a statement.

"About 268,000 people (36,787 families) were confirmed as eligible."

A total of 54,333 families had registered as displaced with authorities between August and November this year, but 17,546 families were scratched from the list because of multiple registration or invalid identity cards, it said.

The displaced are staying with relatives, friends, host families or in rented houses, and the UN is helping distribute tents and other aid.

About 1.9 million civilians fled their homes during a similar offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley this spring, causing a humanitarian crisis for Pakistan. Most of those displaced have since returned home.

South Waziristan, which is closed to independent travel for reporters and to aid workers, is part of the lawless northwest tribal belt where US officials say Al-Qaeda and their allies are, plotting attacks on the West.

Pakistan launched the offensive on October 17 against an initially estimated 10,000 Taliban militants in the semi-autonomous region.

The army said Wednesday that they had killed six militants in the last 24 hours, with eight soldiers also injured in combat.

Overall, about 550 militants and 70 soldiers have been killed since the army launched the South Waziristan offensive, the military has said, although their figures cannot be independently verified.

Elsewhere in the troubled northwest, security forces killed five militants in an operation in the Shashu Ghund area in Kurram tribal region on Wednesday, the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.