BARA, Pakistan (AP) — More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has refuted the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.