Displaced by bombs, Pakistanis want peace

More families arriving daily
Diarrhea is ravaging the population, camp officials said, and the smell of fecal matters hangs in the air. There's no air conditioning, which is especially tough on women, who are trying to observe their cultural and religious traditions of staying indoors and out of the sight of unrelated men.

Every day, more families are arriving. On Friday, children helped clear grass to allow space to set up more tents.

"It is so hard here," said Jamshid Khan, a 20-something with a bum leg who reached the camp five days ago. "We want to go back as soon as possible."

Pakistan's Taliban movement, meanwhile, has claimed responsibility for at least three major attacks in recent days, calling them revenge for the Bajur operation and a military offensive in Swat. One attack, a twin suicide bombing at a weapons manufacturing complex near the capital, Islamabad, killed 67 people.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, which lies next to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and is absorbing many of the displaced, called the civilian exodus a "gesture of cooperation from the local people," to allow the operation against the insurgents to avoid "collateral damage."

"To us, the main objective is to bring peace and stability in this area," he said. "We will fight until the last victory."

No open criticism of Taliban
In interviews at two camps visited by the AP, virtually no one would criticize the Taliban or openly support the military action.

It was difficult to say why — whether they were scared, sympathetic, or genuinely not bothered by the insurgents, or whether tribal loyalties wouldn't allow them to speak ill of the militants to a foreigner.

Did the Taliban force them to give up male members to fight the jihad? "No."

Did the Taliban threaten the people? "No — they leave us alone, and we leave them alone."

Did the Taliban punish men without beards or women who wandered out alone? "No ... they might encourage people to observe Islamic law, but most of us do so anyway."

Is the Interior Ministry chief correct when he says more than 3,000 armed militants — many of them from other countries — are in Bajur? "We don't want to take sides."

Three women, including Bibi, said they saw militants offer to pay drivers to give lifts to civilians trying to escape.

Sartaj Khan, a slender 21-year-old with a sad face in the Pir Piai camp, said, "If anybody says anything bad about the Taliban, they'll go after them."

Military operation could bring Taliban support
Not far away, in a separate camp on the outskirts of Charsadda town, more than 150 people are staying in classrooms in a vocational school building.

Khan Wali, a 29-year-old with one wife and four children, said the military operation could lead to more sympathy for the Taliban.

"Why is the government bombing our homes? The Taliban want to bring peace to the area," he said.

He and others also decried suspected U.S. missile strikes that they said have killed innocent people in compounds allegedly inhabited by Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

"It is because of these atrocities that people are giving the militants more and more sympathy," said Mohammad Shoaib, a 23-year-old manual laborer.

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