Aid agencies told to prepare for NWA evacuation

ISLAMABAD: Humanitarian agencies active in northwest have been quietly told to prepare for up to 365,000 displaced people in advance of a military offensive in North Waziristan, a senior official with an international humanitarian agency said on Monday.

The official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, was responding to a media report in a local newspaper that Pakistan will launch a military offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban in the Afghan border regions.

"Humanitarian agencies operating in FATA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were given the heads up two weeks ago by the authorities of a possible displacement of up to 50,000 families," he said, referring to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the northwest province.

A similar tip-off in 2009 preceded a military offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan by about five months, he said.

Other aid agencies were not immediately available for comment.