Tribesmen from Tirah want return process made easy

BARA: Tribesmen have asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor and corps commander Peshawar to remove the condition of registration for repatriation of the tribal families to Maidan area in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency.
Hundreds of families could not go back to their native areas in Tirah valley because the authorities have stopped the registration process.“The security forces do not allow families having no registration to go to Tirah for the last three years,” a tribesman complained.
The militants set ablaze houses, hujras, shops and markets after they seized the Tirah valley in 2012, forcing the people to flee their native areas.
“Though the valley has been purged of militants, the security forces do not allow families lacking registration to return to their native areas,” said Imran Afridi belonging to Shalobar tribe.He pointed out that people having computerized national identity cards (NIC) mentioning their addresses in Tirah area also not being allowed to return home.
Another tribesman, Muhammad Sadiq, complained that the security forces had made registration process for the tribal people troublesome.“If a tribesman wants to visit America, he may be issued a US visa easily but a resident of Tirah or Khyber Agency cannot go to their native areas because the registration process is so cumbersome,” he argued.
Muhammad Sadiq said the militants attacked and destroyed their houses and other infrastructure in Tirah three years ago, but he had not been able to visit his village to reconstruct his house and cultivate his fields because he could not get himself registered.
He added that the political administration had also made issuance of “permission letter” difficult as the non-registered families needed permission from the political administration for their return to their native areas.
“Sometimes the application for permission letter takes six to seven days as signatures of assistant political agent and political tehsildar are required,” he said.He asked the authorities to let the tribal families go to their native areas on the basis of their CNICs instead of asking them to seek permission letters and registration.