Pakistan refugees 'facing catastrophe'

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani civilians trapped by an offensive against the Taliban in Swat face catastrophe, a rights group said yesterday, as fighting flared in another militant-plagued region.

The offensive in the Taliban bastion of Swat, about 120 km northwest of Islamabad, is the military's most concerted effort to roll back a spreading Taliban insurgency that has thrown the nuclear-armed country's future into question.

The offensive has sparked an exodus of 2.3 million people, according to provincial government figures, but about 200,000 people are believed to be still in the valley.