PESHAWAR: The Fata Disaster Management Authority will begin the return of internally displaced persons to Rajgal valley near Afghan border in Khyber Agency after Eidul Fitr as the Pakistan Army has de-notified the area as conflict free.

Officials said the return of 1,100 registered and around 2,000 unregistered displaced families was likely to begin on June 22.

They said the security forces had cleared the area and authorised the authority to take displaced families back to Rajgal, a remote part of Khyber Agency.

The process of the return of IDPs to Khyber Agency will be over once the families are back to Rajgal.

The Pakistan Army had launched the Khyber-4 operation in July 2017 to wipe out militant groups from Rajgal.

The operation was conducted at an altitude of 12,000-14,000 feet with the officials claiming that so-called Islamic State and other militant groups had sanctuaries there.

However, the future of IDPs from North Waziristan Agency and the people, who took refuge in Afghanistan in the wake of the Zarb-i-Azb operation in June 2014, hangs in balance.

Around 14,000 displaced families are still awaiting return to North Waziristan Agency.

The surge in targeted killings and uncertainty has forced many families to move back to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Zameer Wazir, a native of Miramshah, who was repatriated before Ramazan, had to bring the family back to Peshawar due to the prevailing insecurity.

“There was an extreme fear and I moved my family back to Peshawar,” he said.

Mr Wazir said his native area had been without business, electric supply and telecom services and therefore, the people couldn’t survive without basic facilities.

Over one million families had fled homes in North Waziristan Agency after the security forces launched an operation against militants.

The FDMA had terminated the registration of 70,790 Fata families, including 26,522 from North Waziristan Agency, when they ‘voluntarily’ decided not to go back due to multiple reasons, especially a lack of basic facilities.

The FDMA officials said they had planned to repatriate all IDPs to North Waziristan and Khyber agencies before next October after discussing it with the representatives of the Pakistan Army and other stakeholders.

They said the repatriation of around 2,000 Fata people from Afghanistan had been suspended.

The authority said the return of IDPs to other tribal agencies had been completed.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2018