Displaced Pakistanis begin to return home

THE first groups of the two million Pakistanis who fled a military offensive against the Taliban in Swat Valley began trickling back home yesterday, but many families refused to leave refugee camps, demanding promised government assistance and citing security concerns.

In Pakistan’s east, meanwhile, an explosion rocked a small village, killing at least nine people — seven of them children — wounding dozens and damaging houses in a reminder that security in the country has deteriorated well beyond the north-west region bordering Afghanistan.

TV footage showed a massive crater at the scene of the blast. Many people were trapped under rubble, and the explosion’s cause was unclear.