Index World Press Photo
August 2009 | Edition Twelve     




Farmer Aqal Wasir stares at the tent city of Shah Mansoor, in Swabi. The forty-five-year-old fled from Chaktara in Upper Dir with his wife and seven children, the youngest less than a year old. His passage on a truck, with only standing room for everyone, cost him 15,000 PKR (US $180).

"Life was pleasant, everyone was happy," said Aqal.

But all that changed with the military operation to chase out the Taliban militants in the northwestern province.

"I left my crops in the field to rot," he said.

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