KOHAT: The Reforms Committee Parachinar (RCP), a representative body of 800 displaced families of Kurram Agency, has demanded of the army chief and the prime minister to order a judicial probe into the 2007 killings in the tribal region and convene a combined jirga of Shia-Sunni sects to ensure their early and safe return to their homes.

A statement issued after a meeting of the PRC held at the Company Park here the other day said the participants emphasised that accountability must be flawless and that on whosoever the responsibility of bloodshed was fixed it would be acceptable to the committee.

The committee repeated demand of disarming of all the tribes irrespective of their sects for ensuring lasting peace in the region.

The statement said that the provincial and federal disaster management cells had put the case of 800 internally displaced families of Kurram Agency for rehabilitation on the back burner, thus not giving clearance to them to return to their homes after lapse of almost 10 years.

It quoted the participants of the meeting as regretting that they had been forced to live like vagabonds in their own country.

On the occasion, the committee’s secretary general Attaullah Ghilji said the main hurdle to their return was the security issue, which could be resolved through a Shia-Sunni jirga, enabling them to go back to their homes.

Mr Ghilji said the government had resolved the issues of Swat, South and North Waziristan Agencies and Malakand on priority basis in shortest possible time, but nobody was paying any heed to their plight.

He recalled that in 2011 the then political agent of Kurram had promised to take up the issue of their rehabilitation with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the Peshawar corps commander, but the administration backed out of its promise. He said since November 2007 when they were forcibly ousted from Parachinar, the lackluster response of the government had multiplied their miseries.

“We are paying Rs8,000 to Rs11,000 per month as house rent by working as labourers and also educating our children, but have no more courage to bear the burden. We were well to do families but are now living in extreme poverty. We demand of the government to increase our compensation amount to at least one million rupees so that we can rebuild our damaged houses and shops,” he demanded.

Mr Ghilji deplored that the agencies of the provincial and federal governments had asked them to return to their home towns without first addressing their concerns on security.

He demanded that the houses declared as partially damaged should be given status of destroyed and that the government should provide them food, cash and shelter until their complete rehabilitation.

He recalled that 40 per cent of IDPs were ignored when the government paid first installment of Rs150,000 to the displaced families two years ago.

The meeting was also addressed by elders, including Haji Asadaullah, Haji Sawab Khan, Haji Bismillah Jan, Mullah Janan Shah and a large number of IDPs. They said that Rs1.2 billion was needed for complete rehabilitation of the IDPs, including the destroyed businesses.

The participants alleged that Smeda had promised to give them loans from Rs500,000 to Rs2 million, but the project could not be implemented as some vested interest demanded commissions.

Published in Dawn January 3rd, 2017