TANK/BANNU: Another 152 displaced families left Kor Qila camp in Tank for South Waziristan Agency on Tuesday on the second day of their repatriation process which began on Monday.

Dera Ismail Khan Commissioner Zakir Hussain Afridi and DIG Abdul Ghafoor Afridi visited the camp to inspect the arrangements made for repatriation of IDPs to South Waziristan.

Tank deputy commissioner Ahmed Khan Wazir, DPO Kifayatullah Wazir and South Waziristan political agent Islam Zeb were also present on the occasion.

Commissioner Zakir Afridi was briefed about the arrangements made for the repatriation of the displaced families to South Waziristan.

Mr Afridi expressed satisfaction over the measures taken for return of the tribal people to their towns.

On the first day of the 12th phase of the IDPs repatriation, over 205 families had left the Kor Qila camp, reaching their homes in Daiba, Dand Katch, and Mulla Srai villages in Sarokai tehsil of South Waziristan.

It is to mention here that around 79,000 families of Mehsud tribe were forced to leave their homes when security forces launched operation Rah-i-Nijat against banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in June, 2009.

However, a large part of Mehsud tribe dominated area has yet to be declared as conflict free zone which apart from other reasons has caused delay in the return of the IDPs.

The return of IDPs to South Waziristan had started on Dec 4, 2010, and so far about 12,000 families have returned to different areas, including Chagmalai, Shahor, Spin Kai Raghzai, Kotkai, Sararogha.

Our Bannu Correspondent adds: The political administration and Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) will start registration of internally displaced families from North Waziristan today (Wednesday) to dispatch them to their hometowns.

In this respect, the political administration has announced a schedule for registration of IDPs. According to it, registration of IDPs belonging to Shah Miri, Mir Ali, Spinwam, Shashkhel, and Bubli villages of tehsil Sinwam would start today (March 18) at Bannu camp house located in the Bannu township. The elders and malaks of these areas were asked to ensure their presence at the camp on the scheduled day.

Besides, the tribal people belonging to various clans of Mir Ali tehsil were also asked to contact the office of political agent in this regard.

Officials said that further details of the schedule would be announced as the registration process progressed.

Besides the Pak-Army, the political administration in collaboration with the FDMA is facilitating the IDPs’ return to their home towns.

According to officials, each family would get Rs25,000 cash assistance and Rs10,000 transportation cost upon returning to their homes. They said that food ration for six months would also be given to every household apart from a kit containing non-food items.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2015

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