Pakistan: Corpses lie exposed in retaken Swat town

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-31 21:53

Displaced men and boys line up as they wait for the daily ration during a food distribution at the Chota Lahore refugee camp, at Swabi, in northwest Pakistan, May 30, 2009. [Agencies]

Most of Mingora's around 375,000 residents fled before or during the offensive. The military briefly lifted a curfew Sunday, allowing some of the 20,000 or so that remained to buy provisions in the few shops that were open.

Ali Rehman said he had not left his house for 25 days.

"I never knew who was fighting and who was being killed," he said, clutching two bags of flour. "I need help to keep my family alive because I do not have any source of income anymore."

Authorities said they were distributing aid to people trapped in Mingora, and water and gas supplies were being restored. An emergency medical team had been flown in and would work to reopen the town's hospital and treat civilians wounded in the fighting, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said.

But it will be at least two weeks before power is back on, and refugees are not yet being encouraged to return home, he added.

The Taliban warned they would attack Pakistani cities in retaliation for the Swat offensive. They claimed responsibility for Wednesday's gun and suicide bomb attack in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 30 people. A day later, three suicide bombings killed at least 14 people in two cities in the northwest.

Abbas said Saturday that 1,217 militants have been killed in the Swat offensive and 79 arrested, and 81 soldiers have died -- figures that cannot be independently verified. The military has not released civilian casualty numbers and says all care is being taken to protect the innocent.

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