On 20 May, Akbar Khan, a 70-year-old farmer in the Nawagai village of Swat in northwestern Pakistan, was returning from his orchards and rice fields when a group of Taliban fighters entered his village and occupied the main thoroughfare.

“There were hundreds of them,” Khan said. “Their faces were covered and they were brandishing weapons. We had to flee. For 10 days I moved from place to place with the women and children of the family. I don’t know why we are being punished in our own land.”

Khan heads one of thousands of families who have been forced to leave their homes in recent clashes between Pakistani security forces and Taliban fighters in the Swat, Buner and Dir valleys in the North-West frontier of Pakistan. Most of the families have crossed the steep, zigzagging Malakand mountain paths by foot to reach the plains of Mardan and Sawabi, the trauma of war clearly visible on their faces.

Veiled in her traditional shawl, Ezat Begum, 32, said she was cooking an evening meal in her home in the Gwaratai village in Swat when an intense exchange of gunfire started. “I saw that my sister, who was living with me, was hit on the head and crashed to the ground. Our men were screaming. The children were terrified and weeping. I left my wounded sister behind and ran out of my home along with my children and Gul Panra (Rose Petal), my sister’s 7-month daughter.”

Together with the women of her neighborhood, Begum traveled barefoot to Landakai. “I did not know the fate of my wounded sister or my husband. I had to reach a place where I could protect my children and Gul Panra. I spend two nights under a tree in Londkhwar village and then a local took me to his home, where I’m now staying.”

When asked whether her sister alive or dead, Ezat Begum burst into tears, saying she died of her wounds as no medicine was available and no one could go outside due to long spells of curfew. “The only reason that I am breathing is that I hope that my husband will return and take me back to our home,” she said with despair.

The provincial government says the fighting has displaced over three million people since hostilities began in August 2008. Over 360,000 have fled Swat, Dir and Buner in the last month alone. 80% of them are now living with relatives and friends, while the remaining 20% have been forced to live in camps managed by government and non-governmental organizations, such as schools, buildings under construction and mud-houses in the rural areas of Mardan and Sawabi.

But not everyone has been able or willing to leave Swat. Some devastated families remain in the district with very meager resources on which to survive. Victims of the displacement complain that the government launched the military operation without a contingency plan. “First we were subjected to long spells of curfew and when we reached the verge of starvation, we were told to vacate our homes”, complains Sardar Ali, 45, who recently fled his home in Mingora and is now staying with a friend in Mardan. Two peace deals and two military operations over the last three years have not been able to liberate them from the clutches of the militants.

A military-imposed ban on journalists in Swat means media exposure to the situation in the North-West Frontier Province has been limited. In an attempt to appeal for help, and to contact his relatives, Ali scaled the nearby mountains to receive a signal on his wireless telephone. “I saw dead bodies of children, women and militants in the streets of Engaro Dherai and Takhtaband. I tried to contact journalists and politicians by phone; I was crying but no-one came to our rescue. The military bombed the surrounding villages as all the people living there were terrorists,” he said.

Since early April, all main routes to Mingora—the main town of the Swat district with a population of 700,000—have been dominated by Taliban militants. The military have responded with air strikes, shelling the surrounding areas indiscriminately in the hope of sending Taliban militants into hiding in the hills. The strikes have resulted in the deaths of civilians as well as militants, and have damaged homes. One shell hit Akbar Khan’s house and destroyed its outer walls. Khan claims the clean-shaven, suit-wearing Wali (ruler) of Swat was a better Muslim than today’s bearded, weapons-brandishing, self-proclaimed defenders of Islam, as he provided employment, justice and a decent life for his subjects.

Sajjad, a local social worker who is working for the welfare of the displaced people, told the Media Line that the majority are not registered with the UNHCR or the government as refugees. “The NGOs and authorities only visit camps located along the main highway. No one is concerned with the fate of the thousands of families who are living with host families in the villages. They are living in miserable conditions,” he explained.

The displacement has compromised the deep-seated traditions of the Pashtun people, who follow tight codes of hospitality, honor, courage and revenge, as well as those of modesty.

In the make-shift camps at the outskirts of Takht Bhai Mardan, women have to walk a long way to wash-rooms in their Purdahs (veils), facing the risk of being seen by other men and, at night, being attacked. Women, children and elderly people stand in long queues for food and relief goods, desperate to bring something to their families waiting in the tents. “This badly harms the sense of dignity among displaced people,” said Hazir Gul, manager of the Caravan organization, which services displaced people from Malakand region. “It is not in their tradition for women to stand in queues and mix with men. If the situation is not properly managed it could yield serious social and cultural complications,” he added.

Health Officials say the unhygienic conditions in most of the camps have resulted in skin diseases and diarrhea. “These people belong to an area where pleasant weather prevails in the summer,” says Dr. Ashfaq, a relief agency worker in Jalala, Mardan. “If the restoration of peace is delayed in their home towns, I fear the scorching heat in the camps will result in the deaths of women and children.” The doctor believes that delays in receiving food, the fragile security situation in the region and uncertainty for their future may lead to serious psychological complications among the displaced.

The Swat valley differs considerably from Pakistan’s rugged tribal areas in its nature and social fabric. The pleasant weather, fertile land and rich cultural heritage that have developed over the last few centuries mean that along with the loss of lives and property, the displaced people feel they have lost the glory of their culture and society.

Shaukat Sharar is a development specialist from Swat. He argues that the conflict has turned the entire society upside down, with millions of people passing through a critical period of their lives, having to bear hardships for the sake of peace in their homeland. “God forbid, if the security forces fail to curb the militants this time,” he said, “the whole of northwestern Pakistan will descend into chaos, confusion and a crisis of unparalleled proportions.”

Peace,

Shaheen