A Pakistani woman with a child from the Bajur tribal region walks among tents at the Katcha Garhi camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008. Refugees fleeing a Pakistani offensive against militants said the army is bombing their homes, killing women, children and livestock. Nearly 200,000 people have fled the fighting in Bajur regency to camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)Pakistani Refugees Complain Of Army And Taliban -- Yahoo News/AP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The Taliban beheaded their relatives and terrorized their villages. Now army airstrikes are killing the innocent, say refugees who fled fighting set off by a Pakistani military offensive against the Islamic extremists.
The army maintains it is winning the war in the Bajur tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan, one of its most intense operations against al-Qaida and its Taliban allies since 2001. A spokesman even predicts military victory in a month.
Dozens of refugees interviewed by The Associated Press this week in tent camps on both sides of the border gave a rare glimpse of the human costs of the fighting in Bajur, a highly dangerous region where foreigners are largely restricted from visiting and Pakistani journalists have limited movement.
"I feel like a walking dead body," Parmeen Bibi said as she carried her wailing 3-year-old granddaughter in a camp in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's troubled northwest.
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My Comment: These refugees are primarily from the Bajur Tribal belt, one of Pakistan's more smaller regions. If Pakistan starts to attack the more larger tribal areas, the refugee crisis can easily swell in the millions .... a disaster if this is to occur in winter.