500,000 set to flee Taliban clashes

PANICKED civilians fled Pakistan’s Swat district yesterday as the government prepared to shelter 500,000 displaced people and clashes with Taliban fighters heightened fears that a peace deal was about to collapse.

The spiralling insecurity made a mockery of a ceasefire on the eve of President Asif Ali Zardari’s first meeting with US counterpart Barack Obama, amid Washington’s concerns that Taliban and al-Qaida linked militants are threatening Pakistan’s existence.

Bedraggled men, women in burkas and children piled onto pick-up trucks, and animals were led through streets in the rush to flee Mingora, the main town in the one-time ski resort, devastated by a nearly two-year Taliban insurgency.