Zarb-i-Azb: Registration of nearly a million IDPs completed

Published July 18, 2014
People displaced from North Waziristan queue up for relief supplies outside a World Food Programme distribution point. —AFP File Photo
People displaced from North Waziristan queue up for relief supplies outside a World Food Programme distribution point. —AFP File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The registration process of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan has been completed and 90,750 families consisting of 9, 92,649 persons have been registered.

Briefing media persons in Islamabad on Friday, Focal Person of Ministry of SAFRON for Internally Displaced Persons Tariq Khan, however, said that the data collected at the registration points will be verified through National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to get the actual number of dislocated persons.

He said 80 per cent IDPs have settled in Bannu, five per cent in Dera Ismail Khan, six per cent in Lakki Marwat and seven per cent in other parts of the country.

The SAFRON spokesman clarified that about 21,000 IDPs, who could not travel through Miramshah and Mirali, used the 50-kilometer route through Khost district of Afghanistan and entered Pakistan again.

He said that each IDPs family is being provided one food basket consisting of 100kg eatables per month but depending upon the size of the family more than one basket are also given to them.

Tariq Khan said that each IDP family is being given a stipend equal to basic minimum wage of Rs12,000 per month besides Rs20,000 Ramazan package.

He said the government of Punjab has announced Rs7000 stipend for each family while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will give Rs3000 stipend per month to each family besides Rs5000 for Ramazan package.

All these people have been forced to flee from North Waziristan by the long awaited military offensive, Zarb-i-Azb, launched by the armed forces of the country last month aimed at eliminating Taliban and other militant bases after a dramatic attack on Karachi airport which marked the end of a faltering peace process with the Pakistani Taliban.

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