Beijing Olympics: Thousands of civilians flee Pakistani offensive

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied his nuclear-armed nation was on the verge of collapse as top US officials Sunday welcomed his government's bloody military offensive against the Taliban.

"Is the state of Pakistan going to collapse?" Zardari said in an NBC interview aired Sunday, after White House talks last week with President Barack Obama that were also attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"No. We are 180 million people. There the population is much, much more than the insurgents are," Zardari said, fending off a mounting clamor against his leadership from US lawmakers.

Zardari admitted that Pakistan had "a problem" with the fundamentalist Taliban militia inside its borders and called for an international approach to extremism as a whole, "because it's not Pakistan-specific."

More than 100,000 panicked people fled Pakistan's northwest region as the government briefly relaxed a curfew to allow civilians to escape a fierce onslaught against Taliban insurgents.

Pakistan's military said that about 200 rebels had been killed in the last 24 hours in the troubled region, where families crammed into already overcrowded vehicles or set off on foot in flight from further bombardments.

Some were stuck on the roads out of Swat's main town Mingora, as the curfew was reimposed before they were able to reach safety.

"I left Mingora about 10 hours ago," said 35-year-old Aziz Ahmed as his mother, wife and three children waited in his car.

"The road is completely closed and we cannot move... There are no shops, restaurants for food -- we can only drink water from the springs."

Aid agencies say they fear a major humanitarian disaster as security forces pound militant hideouts and key towns in and around Swat, a former tourist hotspot torn apart by a two-year insurgency led by the Islamist hardliners.

Up to 500,000 people are already believed to have left or be preparing to leave their homes in Swat and nearby Lower Dir and Buner districts, the UN refugee agency has said, many crowding into hastily-set up camps.

"My information is that more than 100,000 have already managed to leave Swat during the curfew break today Sunday," said forestry minister Wajid Ali, who is also a lawmaker from Swat's main town Mingora.

The curfew was relaxed between 6:00 am midnight GMT and 3:00 pm in areas of Swat and neighbouring Malakand district.

With the government unable to provide transport for the desperate diaspora, witnesses said people were grabbing what they could and streaming into thousands of vehicles or setting off on foot with their meagre belongings.

"I have just 4,000 rupees 50 dollars cash and some clothes," said 24-year-old Asifa as she stood at the bus stop clinging to her three children.

"There is nobody to help me. It is everybody for themselves. I am willing to sit even on the roof of the bus, but there is no place."

Local administration chief Khushhal Khan told AFP that traffic on the main road out of Mingora was stopped because of troop movements, and another official said that even those on foot were being ushered elsewhere late Sunday.

Critics in Washington said the deal emboldened the Taliban and have welcomed the renewed military offensive.

Migrant workers at a construction site downtown Shanghai May 9, 2009. REUTERS/Aly Song