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McClatchy Newspapers: Those displaced from Pakistan's Swat Valley trek home

By Saeed Shah

The Pakistani army on Monday began allowing people who had fled its 11-week offensive against Taliban extremists in the Swat Valley to return to their homes, but the numbers who went were far fewer than expected amid fears the Taliban really hadn't been vanquished. ''They [the army] have cleared the roads, but the Taliban are in the mountains,'' said Mohammad Shakirullah, a 37-year-old businessman as he waited to board a government-provided bus at the huge Jalozai refugee camp in Nowshera, where he spent the past two months. ``I will go of course, as it is my home, but I'm pretty sure that I will have to come out again.'' More than 2 million people fled the army's offensive, one of the largest sudden movements of humanity in recent years. Just 647 families -- around 4,500 people -- returned on to their homes on Monday. The army had hoped that 3,000 would go back on Monday.

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