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  • Feb 2nd, 2005
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Pakistan has stopped aid organisations from helping displaced people in its tribal regions, including the south-west where a violent insurgency is raging, a rights group said in its annual report on Tuesday. In 2004, humanitarian groups were barred from Balochistan and also from north-western Waziristan, where troops are hunting al Qaeda militants, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said.

"Lack of access to media and humanitarian agencies in the zones of armed conflict has been a major concern during the last year," commission member and former chairman Afrasayab Khattak told reporters at the report's launch.

"There is currently an armed conflict going on in Balochistan, but unfortunately the government has a tendency to seal that area," Khattak said.

He added that people in the town of Sui, where Pakistan's main gas field is located, had to abandon their homes after tribesmen demanding jobs and royalties fired rockets on the gas plant, leaving eight people dead.

"They have been dislocated but the government is not allowing humanitarian agencies to help them. It is also not allowing the media to cover the situation, so that other people could help them," Khattak said. Tahir Muhammad Khan, who heads the commission, said there were no accurate figures on the displacement of people in Sui but Nawab Akbar Khan has claimed that about 1,000 people had to leave their homes.

The military said last week it would clear 500 dwellings from the area around the gas plant in Balochistan, saying the measure would prevent further attacks and protect residents from a possible explosion. Military officials have said that up to 800 regular army soldiers and at least 2,000 paramilitary troops had been guarding the area since the attacks.

Meanwhile people in Waziristan, where thousands of troops fought pitched battles with al Qaeda suspects last year, also faced dislocations but all humanitarian assistance to them was blocked, Khattak said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


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