PESHAWAR: The first batch of tribal people who had migrated to Afghanistan during a military operation against militants in North Waziristan returned to the agency on Monday.

According to officials, 200 families entered North Waziristan via the Ghulam Khan checkpost. The political administration has set up a registration point for the returnees. After the registration they will be shifted to the Bakakhel camp in Frontier Region Bannu for scrutiny and then repatriated to their native areas.

An official said that a total of 2,000 families who had fled to Afghanistan because of the operation would be brought back and the process of their repatriation would continue till Jan 26.

More than one million people had been displaced in the wake of Operation Zarb-i-Azb launched against militants in June 2014. The Afghan government in coordination with UN agencies had set up a camp for them in Khost province. Kabul claimed that over 200,000 tribal people had arrived in Afghanistan after the military operation in North Waziristan.

Sources said that elders of the refugees and officials of the political administration had met near the Afghan border on Sunday to finalise modalities for their return.

The people who migrated to Afghanistan belong to Datakhel, Lowara Mandi, Madakhel, Hamzoni, Paikhel, Muhammadkhel and Derpakhel areas.

Published in Dawn January 17th, 2017