PESHAWAR: Hundreds of internally displaced people have started business activities in areas on the outskirts of Peshawar and are not ready to return to Khyber Agency unless all basic facilities are provided in their hometowns.

Batathal and Sango are rural areas which are located close to Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency and thus most of the displaced families have set up makeshift shops on both sides of the Bara River to earn their livelihood. The shops are exposed to floods and every year the people suffer losses during monsoon season, but they have taken the risk of life and properties as they have no other option.

The bazaar is in bad shape but it is expanding in different directions and one can get everything of basic needs in the shops as many of the displaced businessmen of Bara Bazaar have also shifted their businesses to the area.

During a visit to the area it was learnt that Batathal Bazaar is going to be a mini-trade centre for the surrounding localities because the shopkeepers of various villages also visited it to buy different commodities at reasonable rates.

Seek compensation for reconstruction of houses and shops

After closure of Bara Bazaar the shopkeepers of various villages used to move to Peshawar city bazaars for shopping, but now almost everything is available at Batathal,” shopkeepers said. They pointed out that they were paying rent of up to Rs5,000 for a small open space to set up wooden shops, saying that the landowners were lucky enough whose barren land became their main source of income.

Gul Rasool, who was selling onions in a pushcart, said that he had an established business of poultry in Bara Bazaar, but as the operation against militants was launched he left everything and just secured his family about eight years ago.

Another trader Hardeed Singh said that most of the Sikh community people had shifted to Peshawar city and were reluctant to return to their ancestral village in Tirah valley of Khyber tribal region.

He said that stay in Peshawar was his family’s compulsion, but his people did not want to take life risk to return to Tirah. “We have lost millions of rupees assets, but no one is there to compensate us,” he said.

Yet another shopkeeper Hazrat Umer said that Bara Bazaar was a known trade centre, but now the customers were avoiding coming there and thus the shopkeepers had also stopped reopening their shops. “I was paying monthly rent of Rs850, but now the landowners in Bara was demanding at least Rs5,000 in addition to lakhs of rupees in advance which not possible for poor people like me to pay,” he said.

Many of the people talked about uncertain law and order of the Khyber Agency and feared that the militants might return. The people also pointed out that the government was reluctant to give proper package for reconstruction of the damaged houses and shops, and they could not reconstruct the buildings on their own.

They complained about unavailability of drinking water and education and health facilities besides no supply of electricity, which were keeping the people away from their native villages.

When contacted, Mohammad Iqbal Afridi, a PTI Fata leader who works for IDPs rights, said that about 60 per cent of the people had returned to their villages while rest of them were still waiting for compensation to reconstruct their houses and shops.

He suggested that the government should conduct a fresh survey to ascertain actual losses of the people to compensate them otherwise no one would return to native villages due to absence of basic facilities and sources of livelihood.

“There is no health and education facilities and the children are growing up illiterate,” he lamented.

He said that restoration of power supply and drinking water was another core demand of people.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018