Thousands flee Pakistan into Afghanistan to escape fight between al Qaida-security forces

September 29, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Landay
McClatchy blog

UNHCR: Thousands flee Pakistan into Afghanistan

An estimated 20,000 refugees have fled into Afghanistan from Pakistan's Bajur tribal agency in recent months to escape fierce fighting between security forces and al Qaida-allied Islamic insurgents, the U.N. refugee agency says.

Most of the refugees are sheltering with relatives and friends in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar Province, but some 200 families are living in the open, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said.

The refugees are among tens of thousands of people displaced by the fighting in Bajur, the northernmost of the seven agencies that comprise the remote Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Most have stayed on the Pakistani side of the border.

The fighting erupted in August when the Pakistani army launched an offensive under U.S. pressure against Pakistani extremists and al Qaida fighters. The operation followed an upsurge in insurgent violence in eastern Afghanistan. Some experts believe that the offensive provoked the massive Sept. 20 truck bombing that devastated the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing at least 54 people.

A loose alliance of al Qaida-allied extremist groups known as the Taliban Movement of Pakistan has taken control of most of FATA.

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, frustrated by what they charge has been Pakistan's failure to deal aggressively with cross-border infiltration by the insurgents, have stepped up strikes on suspected extremist hideouts on Pakistan's side of the disputed frontier.

The U.S. tactic has provoked a serious popular backlash against the United States and the U.S.-backed government in Islamabad, which vows to defend Pakistani territory against future U.S. strikes. An exchange of fire on the border between U.S. and Pakistani forces on Sept. 25 has further inflamed tensions between the United States and Pakistan, supposed allies against terrorism.

A dangerous mess in which ordinary folk are caught in the middle once again.