Hundreds of people fled from Mingora, the main town in the Swat valley on Tuesday after local officials advised them to move to safety. Fighting is raging between the militants and the security forces.

Militants have infiltrated five districts of Mingora, the main town in Swat, and begun attacking security forces and government installations, local media reports said quoting top official in Swat, Khushal Khan Khattak.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled from fighting in different parts of the northwest since last August, putting another burden on an economy.

Black-turbaned militants are deployed on most streets and on high buildings, and security forces were barricaded in their bases, another report said.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the militants were in control of ‘90 per cent’ of the valley and said their actions are in response to army’s violations of the peace deal.

‘Everything will be OK once our rulers stop bowing before America’, the Dawn quoted him as saying and adding that the peace deal had ‘been dead’ since the operation in Buner.

NWFP government is expecting the refugees to cross 500,000 mark.Ard army spokesman said that Taliban was using some 2,000 people as human shield.