THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Thousands of people began returning to Pakistan's Swat Valley after nearly three months of fighting that drove the Taliban from the region and created the country's worst refugee crisis in six decades.
Pakistan earned praise at home and abroad for its offensive in Swat, which began in April after the collapse of a peace deal that handed the valley just 100 miles north of Islamabad, the capital, to militants.
Under the protection of soldiers and helicopter gunships, refugees started coming back Monday. How Pakistan manages the return of the nearly two million people who fled the fighting will go a long way to determining whether it can solidify the army's gains in the strategic valley as it moves to retake more-formidable Taliban strongholds in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
In a reminder that the threat facing Pakistan has spread beyond northwestern regions such as Swat and tribal areas, an explosion Monday in the country's east killed at least nine people.
The midmorning blast in a farming village near Mian Channu, in Punjab province, appeared to have been caused by explosives stored in the house of a teacher who had set up a small religious school, a police official said.
He couldn't say why explosives were in the house, but two senior Punjab police officials said there was evidence the building was used as a meeting place for Islamist militants, who in recent months have stepped up attacks in previously peaceful parts of eastern Pakistan.
Separately, 13 suspected al Qaeda militants, including four Kuwaiti and two Saudi nationals, were arrested near Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan, Reuters reported. Security forces also recovered explosive-fitted jackets used for suicide bombing, an official said.
In Swat, officials have carefully planned the refugees' return, many observers say. Pakistani and international aid officials say they have mapped out how the government would ensure the orderly -- and voluntary -- return of residents to the valley and surrounding areas, where police and local government are nearly nonexistent, schools and clinics are shuttered, and many houses were destroyed or damaged in the fighting. >>> ZAHID HUSSAIN in Sakha Kott, Pakistan, and MATTHEW ROSENBERG in New Delhi | Tuesday, July 14, 2009
