SHAIKH SHAHZAD IDP CAMP Mardan, the land of poets and writers and once a cradle of Gandhara civilization, is now a district faced with a humanitarian crisis of greater magnitude. Thanks to Taliban.
Mardan city is emerging as yet another Qissa Khwaani (the bazaar of storytellers) of the NWFP. The influx of people displaced from Swat, Buner and Dir could be seen here in the streets, shops, masjids and Hujras busy narrating the gory details of their horrible stories of exodus, to the local people.
Pitched battles amidst uncertain curfews are underway between the army and the Taliban militants up in the once mountainous tourists' heaven.
The Assistant Coordination Officer of Mardan, Syed Fayaz Ali Shah, assesses more than 300,000 IDPs have so far swarmed the width and breadth of the district.
Majority of them are trying to find mud houses in the villages, rather than coming to camps, where they would have to spend the full sizzling summer in tents.
For centuries, it was the people from the plains who used to visit the cool mountains in Swat to avoid the scorching summer. But, this year, it is the other way around.
The number of IDPs could rise to 500,000 in the next few days as people continue to flee the conflict-hit areas, whenever curfew hours are relaxed.
'I was in the middle of a caravan of 200 people, when we were shelled.
As I looked back, I found at least 50 bodies of men, women and children lying in a pool of blood. But, we continue to run,' Shah Rehman, a Buneri tells some volunteers, while holding a lotta in his hand.
The lotta was the sole utensil, he said, he was given by the camp's organisers after his arrival here. It was used for pitching morning tea, lunch and dinner from the food distribution point established by the district government with the help of World Food Organisation.
But apart from their ordeals and traumas, the IDPs have also transported with them the fear and uncertainty from the Taliban-held mountains to these fertile plains, which are fortunately still under the government's control.
Mardan is the second largest city of NWFP. And, it is a popular impression here that if the military fails this time to completely wipe out militants, emboldened Taliban could make the lives of its people a living hell.
When it comes to the IDPs, their hate for Taliban is increasing with every passing hour of the sufferings they bear in the tented camps, on the streets and in the fields of Mardan.
'The army is left with no excuse, now. We have vacated the battlefield for them to wipe out militants,' says Gulab Sher, a resident of Swat, who has arrived at the nearby Jalala IDP camp.
Both the camps are now house to a thousand families each (around 10,000 people altogether) as the registration of IDPs in Mardan gains pace.
He said Matta and Mingora areas of Swat were still in the control of Taliban. A number of men from Dir, who were standing nearby said one of the sons of Tehrik Nifaz-i-Sharia-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief, Sufi Mohammad, who was killed in an operation two nights ago, was a college teacher and had always stayed away from the TNSM and his father's activities.
'People want the big fish to be killed or captured this time. Nizam-i-Adl has failed,' a group of men from Dir said in one voice.
The group pointed to a bearded man busy in offering Zuhr prayer and said that he was one of the strictest 'followers of Islam' in the whole village. He never allowed a television in his house nor sent his daughters to school. But, now Dir was not even safe for him.
The bearded man had to run along with thousands of others in order not to get killed...most probably at the hands of Taliban.
FLEEING NOT EASY
A large number of families, some of which have brought their livestock with them, are living outside camps, mostly in the open sky under the shadow of trees along the streams and canals, which irrigate the fields of Mardan.
'Fleeing the troubled areas is not that easy. Taliban are mining villages and towns,' said Ahmed Khan, a resident of Swat.
The IDPs have also been complaining about the lack of coordination between the army and the provincial government.
Transport is hard to find in the conflict hit areas. Even if it is available at some points, it is too expensive and is said to be costing ten times more than normal fares.
A woman said she had to travel on foot along with her three daughters and a son for more than 10 miles to reach a place where she could find transport.
The IDPs have demanded that the army should relax curfew for longer hours to enable the civilians to flee the area and the provincial government should sent trucks to pick IDPs free of cost.
Eyewitnesses said the army relaxed curfew for a couple of hours in a number of areas during which people had very little time to reach safer points.
On many occasions, they said, civilians were still walking in the danger zones when curfew was re-imposed, leaving them in the middle of crossfire.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.