Thousands flee valley as Pakistan lifts curfew

THOUSANDS of fearful civilians, many on foot or using donkey-pulled carts, streamed out of a conflict-ridden Pakistani valley yesterday as authorities briefly lifted a curfew. The army said it had killed scores of militants in the latest fighting.

Pakistan has urged residents of the Swat Valley to leave over the past week, while its warplanes have pounded the Taliban-held valley and surrounding areas in a US-backed operation the prime minister has called a “war of the country’s survival”. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have already fled the valley, seeking refuge with relatives or flooding relief camps.

Many of those camps were already filled with Pakistanis displaced from previous army operations, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in a nuclear-armed nation that also faces economic woes.