Thousands of terrified women and children left after troops and helicopter gunships launched Operation Black Thunder. — AP

PESHAWAR Around 30,000 people in Lower Dir have been displaced by a military offensive to flush out Taliban militants, a provincial minister said Tuesday.

`Up to 30,000 people have left Maidan in Lower Dir district over the past few days,` Iftikhar Hussain, the NWFP information minister, told a news conference.

`We are making arrangements for them in Peshawar, Nowshera and Timargarah districts.` Residents said thousands of terrified people, mostly women and children, left the area with their belongings after Pakistan troops and helicopter gunships launched the operation over the weekend.

One local charity said it had registered 2,241 displaced families so far.

The NWFP information minister has justified the Dir operation saying it was a consequence of the Taliban challenging the writ of the government.

`The government will defend its writ but won`t make the first move,` Hussain said.

He says the NWFP government is committed to the peace deal. Even though there are certain militants who want to sabotage the Nizam-i-Adl agreement.

`The government needed to deploy security forces in Buner because the militants were challenging its writ,` he added.

Around 50 insurgents were killed in the operation in Lower Dir, near the Taliban-held Swat valley, officials said.

The military said eight paramilitary soldiers had also been killed since it launched Operation Black Thunder on Sunday.

Heavy artillery shelling by the paramilitary Frontier Corps troops continued in the Maidan area of Lower Dir overnight, a senior military officer said Tuesday.

`We destroyed several militants hideouts in heavy artillery shelling of suspected bases in the area,` the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.