BANNU: Internally displaced people from North Waziristan on Sunday protested against the government contractors for ‘looting’ their houses back home and ‘selling’ valuable items as scrap, threatening to set their vehicles on fire if they didn’t stop the practice.

The IDPs gathered at Milad Park here after marching through various bazaars. They held placards and banners inscribed with slogans against ‘looting’ of their houses destroyed during the Zarb-i-Azb military operation against terrorists.

Addressing the protesters, Utmanzai jirga leader Pir Rahmatullah, former NA candidate Malak Riaz Khan, teachers association president Hafiz Ihsan Wali, Youth of North Waziristan’s former president Noor Islam Dawar and others said they had vacated their houses on the call of Pak army and migrated to other parts, but regretted that their sacrifices were ‘ignored’.

They alleged that the government contractors collected valuables and other household items from their houses and sold them at throwaway prices in other districts. They appealed to the Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif to take notice of the matter.

The displaced persons also warned the political administration to stop imposing heavy fine of Rs2,500 on each vehicle carrying luggage of IDPs to North Waziristan. They said the IDPs returning to their home towns had been deprived of the relief cash amount for the last three months. They urged the Safron ministry to take notice of the injustice. The protesters also demanded speedy rehabilitation and repatriation of IDPs.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2016