TIMERGARA, Sept 12: The exodus of people from Mamond, Salarzai and Inayat Kallay areas started again as the security forces continued to bomb suspected locations in the troubled Bajaur Agency, the displaced people told Dawn here on Friday.

They said that the situation in Mamond, Salarzai and Inayat Kallay areas was worsening with each passing day.

The district administration of Lower Dir has set up four new relief camps for the Bajaur IDPs, DCO Ghulam Mohammad told Dawn at his office. He said these camps had been set up at Government Degree College, Timergara, Sadaat Plaza Munda, Cricket Stadium Ground Samar Bagh and Technical College Sadbar Kalay.

The officials in charge of the camps confirmed that so far 543 families with 4,780 individuals had arrived in these camps. “There are 155 families in Timergara college, 141 in Sadaat Plaza Munda, 72 in Technical college, Sadabar Kalay and 175 in Samar Bagh cricket stadium,” said Fazal Mehmood, district president of Al-Khidmat Foundation, Lower Dir. He said that he had visited the camps on Friday where the flow of IDPs was continuously increasing.

DCO Ghulam Mohammad told this scribe that some families had been living with their relatives or friends in the district and it was difficult to find out their number.

He said that the district had the old food stock and it was being distributed in the newly settled IDPs. The DCO said that the government was planning to establish a tent village in Samar Bagh so that burden on government institutions could be lessened.

The workers of Al-Khidmat Foundation set up a reception camp at the Zulm bridge on Friday as the Bajaur-Munda road was blocked by the security forces. During a visit to this camp, they told Dawn that 45 families had been sent to Talash, 48 to Khall, 19 to Adenzai and three to Gosam.

They would live there with relatives. Contrary to the previous month’s displacement this time around dozens of families were seen taking shelter in Punjab and Sindh, as they think that they will be able to find some work there.

The IDPs reaching in camps set up at Samar Bagh and Timergara college said that the security forces were badly targeting civilian population in Damadola, Mina Sar, Kharkay, Patak, Gatkay and Nawikaly in Bajaur Agency.

They said that their homes were hit by mortar shells. They demanded of the government to fulfill its promise of ceasefire during the holy month of Ramazan. They alleged that the security forces were targeting innocent people instead of militants and Taliban. They also accused the political administration of the Bajaur Agency of arresting tribesmen moving out of their area in search of shelter adding to the woes of their family members.