Southall residents are raising funds for people displaced by the current military operations in Pakistan.

Earlier this week the Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged a £12m aid package for the people displaced by the conflict in Pakistan's North-West region.

Only last year Pakistan finally closed camps that had housed Afghan refugees for three decades. During the past six months it's been forced to reopen them, this time for its own people.

The militancy operation against militants in the Swat area has resulted in insurmountable hardships for the whole population of the area.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are fleeing the combat zones and they need urgent assistance. One million displacements have taken place.

The numbers of homeless people fleeing the conflict is likely to increase in the next few days.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said that Pakistan needed massive international help to avert a tragedy.

Apart from established charities, collections have been taking place and will continue to take places at mosques in Southall. The AbuBakr mosque hopes to raise sufficient funds to be able to deliver and distribute the aid personally.

Individual volunteers will go at their own expenses. The aid will be distributed with the help of personally known and established local organisations in the area.

This is to ensure that aid does reach those in need.

Funds are needed for basic humanitarian needs such as shelter, food, domestic items such as clothes and cooking equipment and medical support.