In Pakistan: Homeless in their Homeland
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009By Nadia Tariq Ali
Nadia Tariq Ali is The Asia Foundation’s Senior Program Officer in Pakistan. She can be reached at ntali@asiafound.org. For more information on ways to support our work with internally displaced persons in Pakistan, please contact Bulbul Gupta, Grants Manager for Programs and Private Philanthropy, at bgupta@asiafound.org.
United Nations officials have described the recent displacement of Pakistanis as the biggest humanitarian crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It is also the largest dislocation of people in the region since the partition of the South Asian subcontinent in 1947 and, arguably, the worst crisis facing Pakistan since Bangladesh separated from Pakistan in 1971.

After years of procrastination, in late April of this year, Pakistan launched a full-scale military operation against Taliban militants and their Al Qaeda associates in its restive northwestern territories. Since the Taliban were consistently undermining the writ of the state, the battle has been long overdue: Taliban militants carried out suicide attacks across the country, targeting Pakistan’s security forces, intelligence community – and innocent civilians – which has made it nearly impossible for the Pakistani government to work with its allies in the region.
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