Thousands of terrified Pakistanis dodged Taleban roadblocks to flee fighting Thursday between the army and insurgents in a northwestern valley, streaming into refugee camps and crowding hospitals with their fatigued and hungry children. On Thursday, several thousand men, women and children _ most riding cars, buses and tractors, but some of them on foot _ took advantage of an easing in the army curfew to pour through Swat's main town, Mingora, in search of safety. The ramshackle convoys were rolling up hours later at a string of camps set up by Pakistani authorities and the UN in the city of Mardan and neighboring towns. Hospitals in Mardan treated dozens of civilians with serious gunshot and shrapnel wounds, children among them. At the Tuberculosis Hospital in Mardan, hundreds of displaced jostled before desks manned by hard-pressed volunteers to register for a tent and a handout of emergency supplies. Yar Mohammad, a 50-year-old stone mason, told a reporter that he had “poured his blood” and his best years into the development of Swat, once a haven for tourists drawn to its Alpine-like scenery. “Now I am seeing the buildings that I have helped to construct being blown up and destroyed,” he said, blaming both the Taleban and the authorities. Some residents complained that the Taleban had blocked their escape. Ayaz Khan said he loaded his family into his car Thursday in the Kanju area of Swat only to find rocks, boulders and tree trunks laid across the roads, forcing him to turn back. “I am helpless, frustrated and worried for my family,” he told a reporter. The military claimed to have killed more than 80 militants in Swat and the neighboring Buner region on Wednesday. Officials have said nothing about civilian casualties. But those fleeing the region bore tales of families wiped out by stray shells. Fazl Hadi, a doctor at another hospital in Mardan, said it had admitted 45 civilians with serious gunshot or shrapnel wounds in recent days and was bracing for many more. Among the youngest patients was Chaman Ara, a 12-year-old girl with shrapnel wedged in her left leg. She said she was wounded last week when a mortar shell hit the truck taking her family and others out of Buner. Witnesses said armed Taleban militants were again roaming the streets of Mingora, Swat's main town, on Thursday. Troops were launching artillery and airstrikes on militant targets in the area. Gen. Ashfaz Parvez Kayani, the chief of Pakistan's army, said it would commit enough of its resources to “ensure a decisive ascendancy over the militants” in the country. But there was no sign of a major military push in Swat _ to the frustration of some. “If the government, the army wants to control and crush the Taleban, why don't they send ground troops to flush them out? Why they are only shelling, which hurts the public most of all and creates anti-government feeling?” said Mohammad, the stone mason. The spokesman, Izzat Khan, claimed that 80 civilians had died in the assault. Khan accused the government of unleashing the army “to appease America and get dollars,” a common view among Pakistanis, strengthened by the coincidence of the latest fighting with Zardari's high-profile visit to Washington.
