MIRAMSHAH: Return of the tribal people, who had migrated to Afghanistan from North Waziristan Agency due to a military operation in 2014, will resume from Friday.

Political Agent Kamran Khan Afridi told journalists here on Wednesday that the tribesmen would be brought back from Afghanistan to their homes via Ghulam Khan checkpost.

He said the return plan had already been chalked out and the administration in collaboration with the security forces had completed all necessary arrangements in this regard. He said total 7,000 people had gone to Afghanistan, of which, 2,500 had already been brought back to their homes.

A large number of tribal people migrated to Afghanistan’s Khost province in the wake of military’s Zarb-i-Azb operation that was launched against local and foreign militants in June 2014. More than one million civilians were displaced from North Waziristan.

The Afghan government with the support of UN and its partner organisations had provided shelter to tribal people in camps. The return programme of tribal people from Afghanistan was suspended after the government closed all the notified border crossing points on Feb 17 owing to series of bomb attacks across the country.

The political administration has set up registration desk for the returning tribesmen, where after the scrutiny process, the people would be transported to a camp in Bakakhel, FR Bannu, where they would be issued Watan cards.

Later, the administration will take them back to their homes. The returning families hail from Saidgi area located near the Afghan border.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2017