Pakistan's Displacement Crisis Far From Over: UN

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By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI - Tens of thousands more Pakistanis are likely to be forced from their homes in 2010 as the military continues an assault against the Taliban, the head of the U.N. office responsible for emergencies said on Thursday.

About 2.3 million people, mainly in the northwest of the country, were displaced by fighting at the peak of the crisis last year, creating one of the largest displacements in recent times.

While most have returned home, many languish in camps and with host families. Hundreds of thousands have also had to flee as the Pakistani military moves against other Taliban strongholds along the Afghan border to weed out insurgents.

"We expect some returns, but there will also be people who will remain displaced as they have nowhere to go back to as their homes have been destroyed," said Manuel Bessler, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"We also expect fresh displacements in other areas as hostilities continue and it will be a challenge for us to keep funding for this on-going displacement in the pipeline," he told Reuters by telephone from Islamabad.

The United Nations, together with international and national aid agencies, are helping about 1.2 million displaced people in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).