Ravages of militancy: Plan chalked out to repair destroyed houses

BARA: Caretaker Minister for Excise and Narcotics Control Manzoor Khan Afridi has promised that the houses and other structures demolished during the clean-up operations and acts of subversion would be reconstructed under a comprehensive plan chalked out for the purpose.

He said this while addressing the Eid Milan party of tribal elders at Alam Gudar area in Bara during his visit to Khyber district on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. While paying rich tributes to the tribal people for their sacrifices for the restoration of peace, he said that no effort would be spared to fight poverty and backwardness in the hitherto underdeveloped areas of the province.

Manzoor Afridi said the government would mitigate sufferings of the have-nots in the tribal areas and besides redressing their grievances. The minister said that the tribespeople would be properly compensated for the losses they sustained during militancy and subsequent the clean-up operations by the security forces.

He maintained that the people of Khyber and other merged districts were facing the menace of drug addiction, adding that the government would take steps to tackle this challenge to save the young generation.

The minister said that his department would put efforts in place to stop the prevalence of drugs among the youth and work for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. “We are trying to use poppy for making life-saving medicines,” he said, adding that the KP government was planning to introduce modern technology in the province to manufacture medicines from poppy. The minister also assured the tribesmen that the government would establish a drug rehabilitation hospital in view of the growing complaints about the soaring number of drug addicts.