Second phase of repatriation to start today

PESHAWAR: The government has made preparations to receive from today 4,329 Pakistani families belonging to North Waziristan Agency who had shifted to Afghanistan when the Zarb-e-Azb military operation was launched against militants in June 2014.

The office of the Political Agent, North Waziristan, in a press release said the second phase of the return of the displaced Pakistanis from Khost in Afghanistan would begin today. It said the affected families were returning home as a result of successful negotiations. It added that all the affectees would enter Pakistan from Afghanistan via the Ghulam Khan border.

It may be added that the second phase of the return home of the Pakistani households that migrated to Afghanistan in 2014 was earlier scheduled to begin on February 6. However, Pakistani officials at the time said the Pakistani families wanted to come and had reached the border of Ghulam Khan from the Afghanistan side, but Afghan authorities sent them back to their abodes in Khost. It seems any issues holding up their return home have now been resolved.

The press release said all the returning Pakistani families would be provided transportation facilities from the border town of Ghulam Khan to Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It said they would also be served food. As is the practice, the returnees would stay at the government's relief camp at Bakkakhel in Frontier Region Bannu for some time to undergo debriefing before being allowed to return to their homes and villages.

According to the press release, the remaining Pakistani families staying in Afghanistan would be brought back home in the third phase of the repatriation. It said the political administration hasn't yet received the pre-registration forms of the remaining Pakistani families living in Afghanistan. "Once these forms are received, the families would be brought home on the conclusion of the second phase of repatriation when the third phase would be launched," the press release said. Officials had estimated that about 12,000 Pakistani families had migrated from North Waziristan to Afghanistan.