WANA: The residents of South Waziristan know hard times are coming. Troops are massing on their doorstep, they say, food is in short supply, and tens of thousands of civilians are already on the move.

Military and government officials have vowed a full-scale operation into the semi-autonomous, fiercely-independent tribal belt along the Afghan border to hunt down Pakistan Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters.

There has been no indication of when a ground offensive may begin, but Pakistani fighter jets have been pummelling Taliban positions in the area for weeks, and nervous residents are now just waiting for the worst to come.

‘We can see a large scale movement by ground troops, they are equipped with small and heavy weapons,’ said 28-year-old Noor Yaseen, who lives in South Waziristan’s main town of Wana.

‘The army are targeting the militants through air strikes or shelling by helicopters. The Taliban are not allowing technicians to repair the electricity towers damaged during the crossfire,’ he said.

‘I saw people bringing water on donkeys from miles away (to Wana and nearby villages). There is no water in mosques, in houses and in madrassas.’

The main Wana bazaar remains open, but people complain about food shortages, while most electricity has been disconnected because of outbursts of fighting between security forces and militants active in the area.

‘There has been no electricity for 20 days, we are already facing shortages of fuel, food and water,’ said 35-year-old farmer Umar Gul.

Roads in and out of the main district hub have been closed for about a month, in what analysts say could be a tactic by the military to impose an economic blockade on militants ahead of the tribal campaign.

Wana is surrounded by high hills covered with orchards, but although the fruit is ripe, farmers say there are no workers to harvest it.

‘You see, the Wana-Jandola road is closed, the Wana-Tank road is closed... we are fed up with this situation,’ said Gul.

Many people have already started packing up their belongings and heading to safer districts.

An army offensive against the Taliban in three other northwest districts which began in late April has already created Pakistan’s largest displacement crisis since partition from India in 1947.

The United Nations says that about two million people have been uprooted from Swat valley and nearby districts, and are now suffering in limbo in hot and dusty refugee camps, or crowding into relatives’ homes.

A similar exodus is beginning in the tribal belt.

Pakistan’s military says that so far 45,000 people have fled the area, most heading to the neighbouring districts of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, which unlike South Waziristan are under full government control.

Those who stay are kept awake at night by the sounds of war.

‘Every night we hear heavy firing, forces used artillery and this creates havoc,’ said Gul Wali Khan, a local shopkeeper in Wana bazaar.

‘We can see helicopters and Pakistan war planes flying in the sky. Jet planes fly very high and are almost invisible.’

It is not just Pakistani jets that residents fear.

On Tuesday, unmanned US drone aircraft fired missiles on a funeral gathering of militants in a remote Mehsud stronghold deep in the mountains, reportedly killing about 50 people in the deadliest drone attack in South Waziristan.

Washington alleges that the tribal belt has become a haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion.

There is a common feeling among Wana’s residents that this time the military offensive will be harsh.

Analysts have said that an operation into the tribal belt will be a tougher challenge than clearing out Taliban militants from Swat, with Mehsud entrenched among his supporters in remote areas and the government holding little sway.

Local government and law and order are run by tribal councils, with many sympathetic to the Taliban because of ethnic ties.

‘It looks like the army is preparing for a full-scale offensive,’ said Wana resident Zumurd Khan. ‘They are taking positions and gathering at various important places.’