Minister says 100,000 flee anti-Taliban offensive in northwest Pakistan

Aid agencies say they fear a major humanitarian disaster as security forces pound militant hideouts and key towns in and around the Swat valley, a former ski resort torn apart by a two-year insurgency led by the Islamist hardliners. Â

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The military on Sunday said they had killed between 180 and 200 insurgents in the last 24 hours, marking an upsurge in fighting in the troubled region.

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Up to 500,000 desperate people are already believed to have left their homes in Swat and nearby Lower Dir and Buner districts, the United Nations refugee agency has said, many crowding into hastily-set up camps.

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"My information is that more than 100,000 have already managed to leave Swat during the curfew break today (Sunday)," said forestry minister Wajid Ali, who is also a lawmaker from Swats main town Mingora.

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Ali said local authorities had asked the military to extend the curfew break -- which began at 6 a.m. (midnight GMT) -- in Swat and Malakand from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. as more people tried to flee, but the army said that was impossible.

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"We would have extended it but we have reports of movement of militants. Therefore we cannot extend it further," said local military spokesman Colonel Mohammad Nadeem, adding: "There are thousands of vehicles on the road."

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With the government unable to provide transport for the panicked diaspora, witnesses said people were grabbing what they could and streaming into cars and trucks or setting off on foot with their meagre belongings.

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"I have just 4,000 rupees ($50) cash and some clothes. I must leave today. It is like a doomsday here in Mingora," said 24-year-old Asifa as she stood at the bus stop clinging to her three children.

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"There is nobody to help me. It is everybody for themselves. I am willing to sit even on the roof of the bus, but there is no place."

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The government has said it is bracing to cope with half a million people displaced by the fighting.

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"The crisis threatens to be the largest man-made humanitarian disaster in Pakistan’s post-independence history," the British-based charity Muslim Aid said in a statement on Sunday.

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Information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Saturday appealed to the international community to help Pakistan cope with the flood of refugees.

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"The situation at the camps is very worrisome because the weather is hot and people are facing many difficulties," Hussain told a news conference.

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Thousands of Pakistani troops backed by warplanes and helicopter gun ships are involved in the massive operation against Taliban and extremist fighters in the area, where jet fighters were pounding suspected rebel hideouts.

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Local administration chief Khushhal Khan said the government had made no arrangements for the transportation of the fleeing civilians, but had set up five more camps in North West Frontier Province where they will be lodged.

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Pakistani security forces mounted operations across three northwestern districts late last month after the hardliner Taliban advanced to within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of Islamabad, despite a February peace deal.

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Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said Saturday that the army would minimize civilian casualties while the government would look after the displaced, but people streaming out of the area say homes have been razed with many killed.

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Pakistan’s military claims to have killed nearly 400 militants since Friday -- including 180 to 200 in the past day alone -- although the death tolls could not be confirmed independently because of the ongoing military operation.

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The fighting has sunk the controversial February deal between the government and a pro-Taliban cleric that aimed to put three million people under sharia law in a bid to end the deadly insurgency.

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Critics in Washington said the deal emboldened the Taliban and have welcomed the renewed military offensive.