Bara traders demand relief package to resume businesses

BARA: The militancy-affected traders in Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency have asked the government to announce a relief package to help them resume businesses before the reopening of the Bara bazaar.
“At least 20,000 shops and markets were closed down when the security forces launched operation against the Lashkar-i-Islam in 2009,” Anjuman-Tajiran Bara president Yar Asghar Afridi told journalists on Monday.
The association’s senior vice-president Bahadur Khan, finance secretary Said Ghaffar, office-bearer from the minorities’ communities Naam Singh and others were present on the occasion.
Yar Asghar Afridi thanked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan and Khyber Agency’s Political Agent Syed Shahab Ali Shah for reopening the bazaar and starting development projects there.
He reminded that Bara was a business hub before the military operation.
He said that owing to militancy the traders of Bara had been facing losses for the last six years as their businesses and properties were destroyed.
“The return of all the displaced tribes, except Sipah, to Bara has been completed but every tribesman’s source of income depends on the Bara bazaar because it was main trading centre,” he said.
Yar Asghar Afridi added that several non-governmental organizations and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) had evinced interest in developing the Bara bazaar but unfortunately the security forces had imposed curfew due to the militants’ activities.
“We have started registration of the local and non-local traders and shopkeepers for the Bara bazaar but the process is being delayed due to reasons best known to the authorities,” he said.
Senior vice president Bahadur Khan said local tribesmen and non-locals were both facing problems and losses in their business.
He said the traders and shopkeepers didn’t have enough money to reconstruct their shops or revive their businesses.
“We have spent all the money we had since the security forces closed down Bara bazaar and launched action against the militants. We had to migrate to safer areas,” he said.
Naam Singh, hailing from the Sikh community, said the businesses and shops of the minorities in the Bara bazaar were also destroyed.
“All the Sikh traders and shopkeepers have suffered losses,” he said. He pointed outthat the Sikhs had at least 600 shops in the Bara bazaar. He added that the minorities, including Sikhs and Hindus, sold properties and shifted their families to the other provinces due to the militancy in Khyber Agency.
Naam Singh asked the government to announce special compensation package for the Sikhs to enable them to resume their business activities in Bara.