Families across Pakistan's northwestern tribal area are fleeing their homes, fearful of being caught up in the military's latest campaign to route insurgents in the area.
Tens of thousands of Pakistani women and children have abandoned their homes in the border region near Afghanistan, many pouring into the Jalozai camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency near Peshawar.
“What we're seeing is a pretty steep increase in the number of people who are coming. And I think, initially, anyway, it caught people and agencies by surprise,” said UNHCR spokesman Tim Irwin. “The people who are approaching our staff here in Peshawar are saying that they had been advised ahead of time by military officials to leave the area.”
The UNHCR says more than 101,000 people have poured into the camp since the start of the year, most of them from Khyber Agency. But Irwin said almost half of them have come in just the past two weeks.
“What we're hearing is not so much that people got caught up in the fighting,” he said. “It's more that they have been warned that the security operation is coming closer to them or that they are aware that the conflict is getting closer.”
The Jalozai camp is now welcoming nearly 2,000 families a day, making it the largest internally displaced person camp in Pakistan. The UNHCR says it is working with the Pakistani government and other organizations to provide food and other essentials, and say the camp is ready for more people, if they come.
“The situation now is pretty well organized,” Irwin said. “What I saw on the ground (today) in the Jalozai camp was a pretty efficient operation.”
There is a chance more Pakistanis will come.
Pakistani officials reported more heavy fighting Friday, saying militants had again taken heavy casualties.
Officials said the clash, the result of a military clearance operation in the Balaras and Khadezai areas in the Orakzai Agency, left 35 militants and one security officer dead.
Despite the violence, the U.N. refugee agency says it is not detecting much panic from Pakistanis, who are just trying to get out of the way.
“What was interesting is that he said that everyone felt informed, that they had the information,” Irwin said. “They knew what was coming and they knew there was a place they could go and get temporary assistance.”
