PESHAWAR: Internally displaced persons of Bara area of Khyber Agency on Monday held a protest demonstration outside Governor House here and blocked the Sher Shah Suri Road for several hours against failure of the government to provide them compensation.

The protesters were holding placards and banners, and also chanted slogans against the government and the Fata Disaster Management Authority.

Talking to mediapersons, IDPs’ leader Mohammad Iqbal Afridi said that the government had announced Rs520,000 for each affected family of the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan, while the militancy-hit people of Khyber Agency had been deprived of compensation.

Mr Afridi complained that food items distributed among IDPs were substandard, and demanded inquiry to expose the people responsible. He also demanded that the orders regarding expulsion of IDPs from the Jalozai camp should be reversed.

IDPS GET CASH, RELIEF ITEMS: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf relief committee on Monday distributed cash among 300 families of internally displaced persons of Khyber Agency.

An amount of Rs2,000 was distributed to each of the 300 families at a ceremony outside Peshawar press Club.

PTI central adviser and relief coordinator for IDPs Seemi Izdi, vice president of Punjab women wing Farah Agah, and adviser to chief minister on social welfare and women development Dr Mehr Taj Roghani were also present on the occasion.

The PTI leaders accused the federal government of adopting step motherly attitude with the internally displaced families. They said that Fata was federal subject, so the federal government was responsible to provide all facilities to the affected people from various tribal agencies. They asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take steps for mitigating the suffering of IDP families.

The PTI and its provincial government, they claimed were extending every possible support to the internally displaced people despite limited resources. — Bureau Report

Published in Dawn, September 09th, 2014