Residents urged to flee Pakistan's Swat Valley

Pakistan officials are urging residents in towns in the Swat Valley to leave as the peace deal covering the northwestern frontier of the country continues to crumble.

The curfew in Mingora, Swat Valley's main town, will be lifted on Tuesday so people can flee, said senior Swat official Khushal Khan.

Taliban militants are roaming the area and planting mines, and security forces will soon be retaliating, Khan said. Area residents should leave for their own safety, he said.

"If the security forces engage them [militants], then there will be additional threat to the lives of the public," Khan said.

A witness in Mingora told The Associated Press black-turbaned militants were deployed on most streets and on high buildings and that security forces were barricaded in their bases. Another witness reported heavy gunfire for much of the day. Fearing for their lives, both asked for anonymity.

An army offensive in the region would see the end of the peace pact under which the government is introducing Islamic law in the surrounding region.

But Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said February's peace deal is already "dead."

'No one can protect us'

The government expects up to 500,000 people to flee the area, said Information Minister for the North West Frontier Province Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

Six displacement camps are being established for the fleeing residents, Hussain said.

"I'm taking my family to Peshawar because if there's any fighting, no one can protect us," Mohammad Karim told Reuters.

"We are leaving the area to save our lives," said Sayed Iqbal, a 35-year-old cloth merchant who was putting household goods in a pickup truck already loaded with his elderly parents, wife and two children.

Tens of thousands of civilians have reportedly already fled their homes to escape the fighting, according to international aid groups.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomber triggered an explosion near Peshawar on Tuesday, killing at least five people, after the driver rammed a vehicle carrying troops. Another 21 people, including 10 troops and police and two children, were injured, said police official Ghafoor Khan Afridi.

Pakistani militants have threatened a campaign of suicide blasts in retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in Pakistan's northwest and for a string of military operations by government forces.

Militants are in control of "90 per cent" of the valley and said their actions were in response to army violations of the peace deal such as attacking insurgents and boosting troop numbers in the region, said Taliban spokesman Khan.

"Everything will be OK once our rulers stop bowing before America," he said.

Meeting in Washington

The deteriorating situation comes as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari prepares to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration in Washington later this week.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation, has come under increasing pressure by U.S. and other western governments to do more to curtail the growing influence of the Taliban in parts of the country, especially in Buner for its proximity to the capital.

U.S. and NATO officials have also condemned Pakistan's peace deal with the Taliban, saying they fear it creates a sanctuary for al-Qaeda allies who launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

In exchange for the ceasefire, the Pakistani government agreed in February to the Taliban imposing Islamic law in Swat, Buner, Dir and other districts that make up the Malakand division, a vast tract not far from Afghanistan.

The deal's proponents say it addresses long-standing local demands for a more efficient judicial system, a grievance exploited by the Taliban, and was the best hope for ending some two years of bloodshed in the Swat Valley.

The Taliban seized control of Swat, once an alpine resort, in a violent uprising in 2007 that pushed tens of thousands of residents from the area.

The Pakistan military launched an operation last week to end a Taliban advance toward the capital of Islamabad. Pakistani troops fought their way into Buner, a district about 100 kilometres from the capital, to reverse a Taliban takeover.

The army says it has killed more than 100 militants as it attempts to drive the militants back into the Swat Valley.