SULTANWAS, Pakistan — Crammed into rickety vans with electric fans and sacks of flour roped to the roof, the first of Pakistan’s 2 million refugees have begun returning to their homes after the army said it expelled Taliban militants from some northern strongholds.
Their return is unlikely to end Pakistan’s refugee crisis. The military is preparing for a major offensive in a neighboring region, ensuring that other Pakistanis will be displaced.
The refugees have spent two months in crowded camps and squeezed into houses with relatives and friends south of the war zone, and they are eager to restart their lives. The government must now restore electricity and water — and prevent militants from coming back.
If the government fails, it could lose the goodwill it won among the public by confronting the Taliban during the spring’s offensive. The military operation began after militants poured out of bases in the Swat Valley into the neighboring district of Buner and moved within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad.
The army has declared Swat and Buner cleared of most Taliban fighters.
But its offensives have forced an estimated 2 million civilians from their homes, threatening a humanitarian crisis in a country that has long fallen short of providing basic services to its people.
The urgency of the situation is particularly clear in Sultanwas, a small town in Buner that was reduced to rubble during the fighting.
With the Taliban driven from the area, about half the town’s 5,000 residents have returned — mainly men to scout out the situation to see whether it’s safe for their wives and children.
About 100 tents have been set up in a wheat field to house them.
