Pakistanis are fleeing the ongoing fighting against Taliban militants in "the biggest and fastest exodus that we have seen in recent years," United Nations refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond says.
Nearly 1.5 million Pakistanis have registered as displaced since May 2 — a rate of about 85,000 people fleeing a day — Redmond said. The total number is equivalent to the population of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “You’d (probably) have to go back to Rwanda in 1994 for a similar size and speed,” Redmond said. He noted that that would be the only comparison between Pakistan and Rwanda, where a genocide left hundreds of thousands dead. The first pictures from the fighting ยป An additional 550,000 Pakistanis were uprooted in fighting before that, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Most of the nearly 2 million displaced Pakistanis are not staying in refugee camps, according to the UNHCR. Pakistan’s military launched a massive operation against Taliban militants in its northwest region earlier this month after a peace deal collapsed and the militants moved within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad.
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The U.S. military is planning to send aid to the displaced Pakistanis, U.S. defense officials said. The aid could begin arriving in Pakistan this week if Islamabad grants permission for the C-17 flights, the officials said.
The aircraft will carry food, water, trucks and air-conditioned tents, the officials said. Planning has been under way for several days, but Pakistani officials are sensitive to a U.S. military presence in the country, the officials said.
