PESHAWAR, Oct 12: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday called upon the government and militants to immediately end hostilities in North Waziristan and halt attacks on innocent civilians. “Civilians in North Waziristan are getting caught in the crossfire between the military and the militants,” Kamran Arif, HRCP NWFP chapter vice-chairperson, said in a press release issued here on Friday.

“We seek an immediate end to hostilities, bombing of villages and use of heavy weapons that endanger the lives of civilian population,” he said.

Over 250 people were killed when heavy fighting broke out in the area between the military and militants on October 7.

While the army claimed that the casualties included only soldiers and militants, local people reported civilian deaths and massive displacement of population.

Mr Arif said that on October 10, tribesmen in Ipi Faqir, a village close to Mirali, buried 50 people killed in air strikes, which also destroyed houses and shops.

“When the militants seek refuge in villages, the military follows them with gunship helicopters and fighter jets, bombing houses and markets,” a resident of Ipi Faqir told HRCP at a hospital in Peshawar where his brother was receiving treatment for multiple injuries suffered in a rocket attack. “We are here in this hospital in Peshawar. I invite the authorities to come and prove if we are militants or their supporters.”

Eyewitness reports said the fighting had displaced thousands of people, forcing many to seek refuge in the nearby Bannu and D.I. Khan districts. Some 80,000 people left Mirali, the second largest town in North Waziristan, where the military operation against militants was taking place. The dead and the wounded were being brought to hospitals in Bannu and Peshawar.

“They won’t even let us bury our dead,” a resident of Mirali, who had brought his wounded son to a hospital in Peshawar, complained. “Our villages are under siege and our tribes scattered. All roads between Bannu and Mirali are closed. We had to trudge for hours on roads with the wounded and elderly, carrying them on wheel-barrows.”

After a brief ceasefire on Thursday, hostilities have resumed. With villages under siege, an undeclared curfew in place and roads closed, the HRCP feared that more civilian casualties could follow.

The HRCP suggested measures to ensure protection of civilians trapped in the conflict zone, including immediate end to hostilities, bombing and use of heavy weaponry; allowing access in the area to international humanitarian and human rights organisations; humanitarian assistance packages and providing safe passage to people; access to independent media; investigation of events leading to civilian casualties; and instructions to the fighting groups to adhere to international conventions on safety of non-combatants.