PAKISTAN: Timeline on human displacement since September 2009

LAHORE, 29 July 2010 (IRIN) - Conflict-related population displacements have been continuing in northwestern Pakistan as the government tries to take the fight to pro-Taliban rebels - highlights below.

September 2009: Up to 80,000 people flee fighting in Khyber Agency (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, FATA) in the first two weeks of September.

16 October 2009: About 24,000 people left their homes in South Waziristan for the two neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank in anticipation of an army offensive against the Taliban, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

November 2009: UNHCR says owing to clashes in South Waziristan it has registered 350,000 IDPs in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

4 January 2010: Landslides block the River Hunza and form an overflowing 16km-long lake in Hunza-Nagar District, Gilgit-Baltistan, a self-governing territory in the Northern Areas. Floods displace 27,600 people, according to the Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

January 2010: UNHCR says some 71,000 people flee fighting in Orakzai Agency (in FATA) to the contiguous districts of Hangu and Kohat in NWFP.

15 January 2010: Some 114,375 individuals from Bajaur and Khyber Agencies, Dir, Swat and Buner areas of NWFP are accommodated in over 10 camps in NWFP, according to UNHCR. In addition, 993,092 individuals are living in the host communities of Charsadda, Mardan and Swabi in NWFP.

April 2010: IDPs displaced from Bajaur Agency, some since 2008, begin returning home. Some complain of a lack of assistance. All camps in Lower Dir District are closed following the return of IDPs to Bajaur.

15 April 2010: At least 72 civilians are killed in an airstrike in the Khyber Agency triggering fresh displacements from the area.

17 April 2010: At least 41 IDPs are killed in bombings at Kacha Pukha IDP camp, just outside Kohat in NWFP (renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province the same month), leading to disruptions in relief work.

June 2010: A low-scale military operation in the Bajaur Agency, which had in April been declared by the army free of militants.

July 2010: Water levels on the lake formed on the Hunza river by a landslide in January begin to recede, raising hopes that 20,000 displaced might be able to return home.

July 2010: The Geneva-based International Displacement Monitoring Centre says 1.23 million people remain displaced in Pakistan.

July 2010: As of 9 July, the following IDP camps in Kyhber-Pakhtunkhwa were operational: Benazir Camp (Risalpur), Jalozai Camp (Nowshera), Samarbagh (Lower Dir), Togh Sarai (Hangu) and Pitao (Malakand) - accommodating some 105,497 individuals. By 25 July, the Samarbagh Camp had closed as more IDPs were returning.

July 2010: Fighting continues in the Orakzai and Kurram agencies of FATA. Skirmishes continue to be reported in South Waziristan, Mohmand and Khyber agencies. It is not yet clear if the military operation will be extended to North Waziristan.

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