PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Refugees fleeing Pakistan’s fight against the Taliban scuffled for relief supplies Wednesday as the military said it had secured footholds in a northwestern valley overrun by the insurgents.
The operations against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley area are shaping up as a major test of the Pakistani army’s often questioned commitment to uprooting an insurgency that the U.S. says poses a threat to the existence of the nuclear-armed pro-Western state.
The army claims to have killed more than 750 militants, but the fighting has also driven some 800,000 people from their homes, creating a humanitarian emergency that could undercut support for the fight among its people and politicians.
Around 80,000 of those are staying in camps just south of the battle zone, the United Nations says. Conditions are hot and dusty, but shelter, food and medical facilities are available.
Tempers boiled over in one camp Wednesday when several refugees scuffled with police escorting a truck carrying mattresses and water, according to footage broadcast by local TV station Express News. Police struck several people with batons, but the incident did not last long and there were no reports of injuries.
In a statement, the military said the offensive could succeed only if the refugees were well looked after and civilian casualties were kept to a minimum. It pledged to hand over enough of its daily ration allowance to feed 80,000 refugees each day.
It also said commandos airlifted into the valley Tuesday had established a “firm hold” in the remote Piochar area, the rear base of Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.
Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that a banned Islamist group linked to last year’s Mumbai, India, attacks was also helping in the aid effort in the camps. It said the group, Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, was the new name for Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is widely considered the front group for the outfit blamed for the Mumbai siege that left 166 people dead and hundreds more wounded. It cited two volunteers for the group in the field, a terrorism expert and unnamed officials.
The government launched a crackdown on Jamaat soon after the Mumbai attacks, arresting several of its leaders, seizing its assets and closing its branches.
The group, which helped in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake in 2005 and after a smaller quake in Baluchistan last year, gets its money from donations. It is believed to have once enjoyed close links with Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.
The Guardian said the group’s members were running a well-organized operation in one camp, providing hot meals and transporting people from the battlefields.
