DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Oct 14, (Agencies): Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Pakistan’s tribal South Waziristan region fearing an imminent army offensive against Taleban militants, officials said Wednesday. Authorities have registered 90,000 people displaced from the tribal belt on the Afghan border since August, with a fresh exodus after a weekend hostage siege at army headquarters near Islamabad deeply embarrassed the military. The government in June ordered an operation into the mountainous northwest stronghold of the Taleban and al-Qaeda, but so far only air raids and occasional artillery strikes have hit rebel sanctuaries.

However, a wave of Taleban attacks in Pakistan that has killed 125 people since last Monday has stoked fears that the long-awaited ground offensive is looming, sending more people fleeing. “Around 90,000 people have left the area (since August) and have been shifted to safer places in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank,” said Shahab Ali Shah, the top administrative official in South Waziristan. An AFP reporter in Dera Ismail Khan saw dozens of families entering the city in cars and trucks, packed full of whatever belongings the panicked residents had managed to gather before fleeing their homes.

“Again people have started coming out of the area because of the fear of an army operation,” Amir Latif, chief administrative official in Tank district, told AFP. “We have started registering them and giving them help.”
Government official Hameedullah Khan said about 60,000 people had registered in Dera Ismail Khan, with the rest taking sanctuary in Tank and elsewhere. Most people were flocking to relative’s homes or were renting houses, while officials said the government planned to establish one refugee camp in Dera Ismail Khan and another in Tank.
An anti-Taleban offensive in and around northwest Swat valley earlier this year forced nearly two million people from their homes, creating a massive humanitarian crisis in impoverished Pakistan.

Most have since returned home after the military in July declared the area safe. But unrest continues, with a suicide bomb by Taleban rebels in Shangla district near Swat killing 45 people on Monday.
The army headquarters siege and three recent suicide blasts have shown the threat from the Pakistani Taleban is far from quashed, despite the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike on Aug 5.
New leader Hakimullah Mehsud has vowed to avenge the August missile attack in South Waziristan, which is also home to al-Qaeda fighters who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion.
Military officials are reluctant to say when they will move into the tribal belt, amid wrangling over a giant US aid package that the army says amounts to a violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

Offensive
Pakistani aircraft bombed Taleban fighters in their South Waziristan bastion on Wednesday as more soldiers and tanks moved in for an expected offensive against the militant hub. The government says the assault is imminent but it will be up to the army when they send in ground troops. A ground offensive in South Waziristan could be the army’s toughest test since the militants turned on the state. The army has not said when it would begin but a senior military officer in the region told Reuters that they were set. “We’re ready for the assault. Preparations have been done. It’s just a matter of the go-ahead order,” said the officer who declined to be identified. “It’ll be done from multiple directions to squeeze them,” he said.

About 28,000 troops have been put in place to take on an estimated 10,000 hardcore Taleban, army officials have said.
But some analysts worry that might not be enough, especially if the army has to block militants from other factions based in North Waziristan coming to the help of their comrades. Taleban had asked shopkeepers in Razmak bazaar to shut their shops and residents of three villages in the area to vacate their homes, a tribal elder said. “People are scared and have begun gathering their belongings to leave. No one wants to be killed in fighting,” Wali said.