PESHAWAR: The internally displaced persons from North Waziristan Agency are in quandary to find place for burying their dead as both the provincial government and local administration has yet to allot specific land for a graveyard.

Some people have to take a detour to shift the dead to their ancestral graveyards via Kurram Agency and Afghanistan.

The administration hasn’t been allowing relatives to take the bodies to North Waziristan since the military operation begun in the area on June 18, said the affected people.

Admin not allowing shifting of bodies to restive N Waziristan

“IDPs have to beg locals to allow them to bury bodies in their graveyards,” said Malik Ghulam Khan Wazir, an elder of Datakhel area.

He said transporters charged Rs40,000 to Rs50,000 for shifting a corpse from Bannu to North Waziristan via Khost in Afghanistan.

Ghulam Wazir, who is member of the committee for IDPs, which coordinates with the government, said 95 deaths had occurred so far and majority of the bodies had been buried at local graveyards in Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.

He said the reason was that the people were not allowed to take coffins to the area, because of conflict and curfew.

“In some cases local people denied IDPs to bury bodies in their graveyards,” he said.

Over half million people have been displaced from the conflict hit North Waziristan who have taken shelter in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with majority of them in Bannu district.

The IDPs from South Waziristan Agency, Khyber Agency and other tribal areas have been facing the same dilemma back in 2009.

Over 36,000 displaced families of Mehsud tribe who were driven out from their area in 2009 in the wake of military operation against outlawed Tehreek Taliban Pakistan have purchased land near Dera Ismail Khan to bury dead.

IDPs from Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency are confronting the same issue.

Haji Gulbat Khan, who has been residing in Jalozai Camp Nowshera since 2009, said that IDPs had been burying bodies in three abandoned graveyards of the Afghan refugees who stayed there for almost three decades.

In many cases, IDPs of North Waziristan temporarily buried their dead in the hosting areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a promise that they would take coffins to the area after returning to their homes. People do not allow outsiders to bury bodies in their graveyards to avoid land disputes in future.

It was observed that when people from Buner and Swat were also displaced due to military offensive against militants in their area, people of other adjoining villages opened their doors to the displaced persons but even in that situation did not allow their land for burial of dead of the IDPs.

Nazir Din Wazir, resident of Miramshah said many people had temporarily buried bodies in Bannu and Lakki Marwat because security forces did not give permission to take coffins back to the area.

After displacement, elders have requested federal minister for state and frontier region Abdul Qadir Baloch and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to provide land to the IDPs for graveyard.

“The federal minister and chief minister have promised to allot plot for graveyard, but did not fulfil their commitments,” said Khalil Wazir, another member of the committee.

He said that elders had also requested Commissioner Bannu Syed Mohsin Shah to allot 10 kanals for the purpose, but in vain.

An official said that chief secretary had also directed the commissioner of Bannu to provide place in Frontier Region Bannu adjacent to the North Waziristan Agency for graveyard, but directives had not been implemented.

IDPS COMPLAIN ABOUT FOOD QUALITY: The internally displaced persons of Khyber Agency on Thursday complained that the ration distributed at Jalozai IDP camp was extremely sub-standard and that there was shortage of drinking water which had caused serious problems for the people.

Speaking at a protest camp outside Peshawar Press Club on Thursday the IDPs’ representatives said that the government had totally ignored them and the facilities given to them were very substandard.

“The facilities of toilets and water were next to nil and thus the dwellers are facing serious problems,” said Haji Mohammad Iqbal while speaking on the occasion.

He said that there was no arrangement of cleanliness and the situation was going from bad to worse and as result the complaints about different diseases was on the rise.

“We held protest demonstrations, press conferences and held meetings with relevant officials but they did not take notice of the problems,” he lamented and said that the people of Khyber Agency were given no attention.

Murad Khan, Subidar Shah Jahan, and Gulab Khan also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014