While military continues its operation in North Waziristan, the inflow of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) is yet to stop. Latest figures show that there are more than 800,000 locals who have fled the tribal belt, home to Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and their local and international affiliates.

In a visit to the sports complex turned distribution camp in Bannu last week, long queues were still visible with the IDPs standing in the heat as temperatures touch 50 degrees Celsius without a shade above their head. "We have been waiting to get our monthly ration package since many days. The camp closes down at 2pm because of Ramzan, so many of us were here a night before to be the first to get the aid," said one of the IDPs who belonged to North Waziristan.

But the misery of the IDPs does not end at this first queue. Once inside the sports complex, they have to stand in another queue to get their ID cards verified by Nadra, and then receive a token from the authorities which then is finally verified by military personnel and then the affected person is directed towards the cash counters and the food and non-food item delivery kiosks.

Although the government has claimed to have opened six distribution points, majority of the IDPs spoken to had no idea about the other such relief sites and were flocking to this sports complex.

Fights have become common, and the armed military personnel patrolling the area carry automatic weapons and sticks in their hands to ensure order within the queues. "These men cannot speak our language. Most of them have been sent from other provinces. All they do is whistle and treat us like animals," said another IDP standing in the queue.

Regular aerial firing by the police is also being reported, as witnessed by this correspondent in the last visit, when the police fired in the air to disperse a crowd that was not following stated rules and regulations to receive aid.

While international donor agencies like the World Food Program are helping the Pakistani government and the military by providing food and non-food items to the refugees through the state bodies, those on the ground say it is not enough to address this humanitarian crisis. However, the government feels otherwise. The federal information minister Pervez Rashid in an interview given to a foreign news organisation said NGOs are banned to operate in the area, although no law has been passed in this effect.

"We were invited by the provincial disaster management authority (PDMA) to conduct a need-based assessment of the IDPs. But when the time came to approve the project, the PDMA said it was not given a go ahead from the military and we had to first apply for no-objection certificates (NOCs) to be able to carry out the assessment," says Toheed-ur-Rehman, coordinator at Rural Development Project (RDP), a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based humanitarian organisation, who along with 25 other NGOs had offered help to the provincial government in carrying out the survey.

According to Rehman, the request came from the PDMA but still the Pakistan Army refused to cooperate. "Even the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) was involved and told us that there would be no problems but we were all blocked. They cited security reasons saying the safety of the workers cannot be guaranteed in these times," he adds.

However, Rehman and other NGOs believe the excuse of security issues is only a cover to hide the truth from the world. "They do not want us to find out about the human rights violation that the locals may report to us. Also, they want to hide that many civilian homes have been targeted," he says, adding, "We have got reports of deaths of many IDPs travelling on foot, while fleeing their homes. The army fears that if we find out about such things, it will refute their claims of everything going smoothly".

A number of NGO personnel spoken to say they are being directed to the PDMA website which has a form that the authorities are asking them to fill to apply for the NOCs but once submitted to the relevant authorities, no one gets back to them. Also, the form asks for information that is irrelevant to the work these national humanitarian organisations intend to do.

"The form was for foreign NGOs working in the tribal belt and now they are asking us to fill the same," says Khadim Hussain of Baacha Khan Education Trust Foundation, whose NGO was not allowed to work in the area.

According to sources working within the government quarters, the disaster management authorities are currently only prepared to deal with this crisis for another two months, and even for that they are ill-prepared.

For example, almost all schools in Bannu and adjacent cities are currently occupied by the IDPs and with less than six weeks remaining for them to reopen after the summer break, the teaching faculty and the school administration has no idea what will happen when it’s time for these schools to resume classes.

According to Hussain, this has to be seen in the context of civil-military imbalance. "The military has historically tried to sabotage the efforts of the civilian governments by misleading them, and ‘security issues’ is part of that smokescreen," he adds.

While these NGOs, especially those of non-religious nature, face many hurdles in providing help to the affectees of North Waziristan operation, the only so-called humanitarian organisations that were seen operating in Bannu are religious and extremist organisations, which put a big question mark on the seriousness of the state to eradicate terrorism. "We have no issues in working in Bannu. The military cooperates with us. No one has asked us for a NOC," says Mohammad Sarfaraz, the chief of Jamaat ud Dawa in Bannu. "They even allowed us to operate in the red zone to welcome the IDPs coming from Waziristan," he adds.

"They deny us access and allow organisations like Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Al-Khidmat Foundation to operate freely," says Nizam Dawar, who heads the Tribal Development Network and operates in the tribal belt.

Dawar, who has also faced difficulty in getting NOC from the government, is alarmed by the dual policy of the government. "With militants escaping North Waziristan, it is possible that such relief camps could be a cover for providing them free passage. If the government is serious about eradicating terrorism, then they should not allow these so-called humanitarian organisations to operate in the region," he added.