S Waziristan damage assessment survey being resumed

WANA: The government has decided to resume the damage assessment survey of the 16,000 houses in South Waziristan, official sources said on Wednesday.

The sources said that Dera Ismail Khan Commissioner had cancelled the Phase-IV of the survey of 16,000 houses in South Waziristan.

However, tribal elders of the Mahsud and Burki tribes appealed to the governor, corps commander and other officials to resume the survey.

A high level meeting was held on Wednesday in which the decision of resuming the survey was taken.

Tribal elders thanked the government for restarting the survey. They said that tribespeople left homes on the directives of the government, adding that all the homes of the Mahsud and Burki tribes were destroyed in the operation.

They said the military continued the operation for eight years and started repatriation of the tribespeople to their native areas after the operation. The government launched a survey for the damage assessment when the repatriation started.

The survey teams included personnel of the Pakistan Army, political administration and other concerned departments.

The tribespeople claimed that the compensation for the destroyed houses were very low, saying that Rs400,000 for the destroyed homes and Rs160,000 for the damaged homes was insufficient. The elders said that the compensation amount was not enough for rebuilding the homes.

They said that earlier three phases were completed without any hindrance while the final phase was cancelled after a disputed between two families started. The elders demanded provision of compensation to the affected families forthwith to enable them to start rebuilding their homes.