Witness to violence in Swat valley

Here Javed Iqbal from Hajiabad describes what happened when the army raided his village.

Pakistan's army says it has investigated the incident and denies Mr Iqbal's version of events.

Our village is called Hajiabad and is located in the Charbagh area of Swat.

The security forces came into our village on 20 June 2009 and blew up the house of a local Taliban Commander, Sher Mohammad Qasab.

After doing this, they searched my house and that of my sister, which are located side-by-side next to the Taliban commander's.

At that time I told the army officials that they must inform us before coming as the Taliban are hiding in the area.

"If they ambush you, while you are on such a mission, it will be us villagers who will suffer most in the crossfire," I said.

That day they went away quietly, but they came back two days later.

This time they arrested five of my neighbours, although we told them they are not Taliban militants.

After that they asked me the whereabouts of the home of another commander, Shireen.

When I told them all I knew, they went to his brother's house rather than his own and set it on fire.

At that point, they asked Shireen's sister-in-law, who had come out of the house, where he was.

She said she had no knowledge of his whereabouts.

They then asked her to go and search for him immediately.

She replied that was not possible as she was a lone woman but they insisted.

During this argument, some of the army personnel opened fire and the woman was hit and injured.

...

My 70-year-old father, Munir Khan, my elderly mother, Bibi, and my two teenage sisters, Saira and Shazia remained behind in our home.

A few days later I saw my parents in a dream after which I started getting worried about them.

[At this point Iqbal starts crying]

Local phone lines were not working due to the army operation, therefore I sent my youngest brother back to the village.

He came back a few days later with the news I was dreading - my family had been massacred by the army.

I immediately returned home and was told by my neighbours that it happened on 3 July.

According to them, on that day, security forces personnel came to the village and went into my home.

They set the house on fire and moments later gunfire was heard from inside the house.

My neighbours said they later learned that all my family had been killed.

...

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