Tribesmen seek repair of damaged bridges & schools

BARA: The members of Sipah, Kamarkhel and Zakhakhel tribes have asked the government to rebuild the destroyed bridges and schools in Bara tehsil of Khyber district

Talking to The News, Khidmat Khalq Committee President Shaikh Gul Afridi said the people of Kandaow Jamaat, Derewandi, Kotki and Sewri Dari and other places were facing a host of problems as the bridge on the Bara River could not be repaired so far.

He said that the families that returned to homes after the end of militancy were facing a host of problems. He maintained that the tribespeople had rendered matchless sacrifices for the restoration of peace but they still lived under unfavorable circumstances.

Shaikh Gul said many houses were destroyed during militancy when people were displaced from their areas and moved to safer areas in Peshawar and other districts. He urged the provincial government to build the bridge on the Bara River in Sipah area in the upper parts of Bara and launch a survey to compensate the owners of the destroyed houses.

Another elder Javed Afridi said that the agriculture sector was badly affected when the people moved out of the area. “The local people are dependent on the agriculture sector but unfortunately all the water channels were destroyed,” he said, adding that they could no longer irrigate their fields and this had crippled them financially.

He maintained the members of the Sipah tribe were facing a shortage of drinking water. He said the women and men walked for one kilometer from one side to fetch water in pitchers from a spring.

Javed Afridi demanded the repair of the damaged schools in the area, adding that this had deprived the local children of the right to receive education. “The resourceful people send their children to private schools but the poor cannot,” pointed out another tribeman, adding thousands of children were thus deprived of the basic right to education.