March 26, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1429

PESHAWAR, March 25: The political administration of South Waziristan has issued ration cards to more than 10,000 internally displaced families as security forces continued an economic blockade of the Mehsud-dominated areas of the tribal agency.

A senior official of the political administration told Dawn that about 10,000 displaced Mehsud families had been registered and declared eligible to receive relief goods, including food rations.

The families have been living with their relatives or taken shelter in government buildings in the adjacent Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts.

He said that the displaced people did not want to live in relief camps and for that reason the government had decided to wind up the camps.

Sources said that the Fata Secretariat had sent tents, food items and medicines for the displaced people. Two committees have been set up for distribution of relief goods.

Local officials are reported to have sought assistance from the federal Disaster Management Authority but no response has been received so far.

Clashes between security forces and militants in the troubled region in January this year forced a large number of Mehsud tribesmen to leave their homes and move to North Waziristan and some settled areas of the province.

The sources said that the economic blockade of the Mehsud area had been continuing since January, with roads leading to the region sealed and inhabitants not allowed to leave or enter the area.

Elders of the Mehsud tribe have complained that the army was not allowing the displaced people to enter the area to get household items. They also alleged that security forces and militants had forced the local people to leave their homes.

One of the elders said that the displaced families were not receiving any relief goods from the government.

A large number of people held a demonstration in front of the office of the political administration in Tank on Saturday in protest against its failure to provide food ration and shelter.

The elders said that they had requested the military authorities, provincial governor and the political administration to lift the blockade and allow people to return to their homes.

Officials of the political administration, they said, were unable to explain why had the area been cordoned off despite an unofficial ceasefire in place between militants and the security forces.

Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said that the area had been sealed after the military operation and the people could go to their homes only after taking permission from the political administration.

He said that the security forces were present in the area and field commanders and the political administration were working jointly to help the people.