Bara IDPs hope governor’s rehabilitation pledge to be honoured

BARA: The internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Khyber Agency on Wednesday welcomed Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan’s announcement about their rehabilitation and hoped the decision would be implemented soon.
“We are facing numerous problems in the camps and want to go to our native areas as soon as possible to resume normal life,” said Safdar Khan Afridi, who belongs to the Akakhel tribe in Bara tehsil.
He said that after displacement he with his family has been living in Jalozai camp for the last six years.“Four military operations were carried out in various places of Bara subdivision, including Akakhel, Malikdinkhel, Sepah and Shalobar areas, and people suffered human and material losses,” he added.
He said the tribal people lauded the governor’s announcement after he visited the troubled Bara tehsil.Another tribesman, Ahmed Khan, said their joy knew no bounds after Sardar Mahtab announced their safe return along with financial assistance.
He complained that the previous government did not bother to redress the problems being faced by the IDPs. “The IDPs have been living in miserable condition in tents and their children were deprived of the basic rights of education and health,” he added.
He said the previous four military operations in Khyber Agency in six years failed to restore peace. “But the recent Operation Khyber-1 cleared the areas adjacent to the Khajuri within two months,” he pointed out.
He said thousands of tribespeople left their homes and shifted to the settled areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the security forces launched operations against the militant groups Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-i-Islam in the past.
A Malikdinkhel tribesman, Abdul Majeed, living in Gulberg locality of Peshawar, heaved a sigh of relief over the announcement of the governor and urged the government to send the IDPs back to their respective villages.
He added that majority of the displaced families were living in rented houses in the province and leading miserable lives.Abdul Majeed claimed that more than 70,000 tribal families were displaced from Tirah and Khajuri areas when Operation Khyber-1 was launched in Khyber Agency in October 2014.
Another tribesman, Ismail Khan said that it was good news for the IDPs as they were fed up with life in the camp and wanted to return to their villages.He said residents of the troubled areas in Khyber Agency had moved to the settled areas several times as a result of various military operations, particularly in Khajuri area in Bara subdivision.
“We are willing to go back to our villages if the government assures us security and facilities,” he said. He added that the government was supposed to reconstruct the destroyed educational and health institutions forthwith.