US 'help' for Pakistan displaced

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Karachi

Thousands have been forced to flee the fighting in Bajaur

The US says it is ready to help Pakistan look after huge numbers of people displaced in military operations against militants in the north-west.

Pakistan says more than 250,000 people have fled fighting in Bajaur, a suspected al-Qaeda sanctuary on the country's border with Afghanistan.

Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in fighting that erupted two weeks ago.

The government wants help to provide food and shelter to displaced people.

Relief

"We stand ready to offer humanitarian assistance to the government of Pakistan, if requested, in regards to the situation in the tribal areas," US Embassy spokesman in Islamabad, Lou Fintor, told the Associated Press news agency.

When contacted by BBC News website, Mr Fintor did not comment on whether the US had assessed the requirements of displaced persons, or whether the offer had been officially conveyed to the Pakistani government.

Bajaur is a hotbed of militancy

The US move comes a day after the interior ministry made a formal request to about 40 international and Pakistani non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help provide relief to the displaced people.

Prime ministerial advisor Rehman Malik said that more than 50,000 families, comprising between 250,000 to 300,000 people, have been displaced due to the fighting.

Officials say the government of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has set up five camps for the displaced people in Dir district, neighbouring Bajaur.

Most people fled the area last week after military helicopters dropped pamphlets asking them to evacuate ahead of a military assault on militant positions, witnesses said.

They said the fighting had not ebbed since then, and people from the battle zone continued to pour into the camps in Dir.

Civilian rulers

Funding for their relief and rehabilitation so far has come from the central government and the government of NWFP, but officials say it is not enough as the number of displaced people continues to swell.

No official Pakistani comment on the US offer was available.

The US has said it seeks to strengthen ties with Pakistan's new civilian rulers.

Fighting broke out in Bajaur two weeks ago when a contingent of security forces tried to redeploy to a strategic outpost on the border which they had vacated earlier.

The troops have since been withdrawn from the post.

Pakistani artillery and helicopter gunships continue to pound militant positions, but there has been no troop movements on the ground.

Mr Malik told the media last week that more than 3,000 Islamic militants had gathered in Bajaur from all over the tribal areas to resist the government forces.

He said the militants included Pakistanis, Afghans, Chechens, Central Asians and Afro-Asian Arabs.

Bajaur is considered a possible hideout of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other top al-Qaeda leaders.

Meanwhile in southern North West Frontier Province, the number of people killed in a suicide bomb attack on a hospital in the town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday has risen to 32, including three policemen, officials say.