By Riaz Khan and Khalid Tanveer

Hundreds of Pakistani refugees who spent weeks in sweltering relief camps began heading home to the battle-scarred northwest Swat Valley on Monday under a government repatriation program, traveling on buses with security escorts. But some refused to go back, citing security concerns and demanding promised aid, while the military tried to block thousands more returning without permission. In central Pakistan, meanwhile, an explosion destroyed a house used as a religious seminary, killing at least nine people — seven of them children — and leaving many others in critical condition in a reminder that security has deteriorated in areas well beyond the country's northwest region by Afghanistan.

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