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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. The Pakistani government is facing a crisis, and it's got nothing to do with the swine flu. Thousands of people are fleeing the Swat Valley in the northern part of the country. The reason? A peace deal between the government and Taliban militants there now appears to be close to collapse. The Army says that militants have attacked police checkpoints in four locations around the district headquarters. There have also been heavy battles to the west and east of the Valley. The BBC's Shoaib Hassan is in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Who is fleeing and why?

SHOAIB HASSAN: Well, at the moment, thousands of people, local citizens from the main town of Mingorah are fleeing because the fighting's supposed to start at any moment. Pakistan's security forces have taken control of all the peripheral areas around the Swat Valley. That's where the Taliban militants are based. That's a stronghold, Swat Valley – and the army is poised to move into the Swat Valley and heavy fighting is expected to take place between the two sides over the next two days.

MULLINS: Now, we know Shoaib that the Taliban had a deal under which they had control over the whole Swat Valley region, and Sharia Law was implemented in the wider area. Under Sharia Law, under the Taliban, what was life like for these people?

HASSAN: Well, I visited Swat about 3 weeks ago. In the main town itself, it was not much different, although you could feel that the government was not in control of the city. There were very little women to be seen. Most of the people – most men were out and about, but even they were quite scared at the moment. In the adjoining areas, that's the rural area, the Taliban were in complete control of the situation. Now, I can give you one example. Swat holds Pakistan's largest emerald mine, and the Taliban had taken over that mine. When I went there, they were mining emeralds and the government was doing nothing to stop them. So that more than anything illustrates how powerful the Taliban have become, and how they are now using natural resources from the area for their own benefit and to strengthen their position.

MULLINS: And did they also make the kind of social changes, things that we hear about in Afghanistan? For instance, you said you saw very few girls when you were there.

HASSAN: As far as I know, no strict Sharia punishments were implemented while I was there, but subsequently there was an incident which raised a great deal of furor all over Pakistan where a 17-year-old girl was flogged for allegedly having an affair in the Swat Valley. She was flogged by the Taliban and that started a chain of events and that lead to the operation that is now taking place.

MULLINS: But a lot of people are saying that this should have happened a long time ago, that Pakistani forces moved in. Why didn't it? I mean, what has changed?

HASSAN: Well, that is the real problem at this moment in Pakistan. Pakistan's newly elected democratic government is not really in control of the situation. There is a lot of political infighting in the government. Pakistan has always had a very powerful army. It has views that are not in consonance with Pakistan's government. So there are a lot of complicated reasons why the operation didn't take place, but there is a consensus now, especially after the flogging of the 17-year-old girl, that whatever else may be implemented in Swat, the Taliban should not be in control and they need to be pushed out of this region.

MULLINS: All right. Thank you very much. The BBC's Shoaib Hassan, speaking to us from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Thank you.

HASSAN: You're welcome. Cheers.

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