KHYBER: Despair and dejection was written large on the faces of most of the returned persons of Sipah tribe when they reached their homes in Dray Wandi locality of Tirah valley after eight years of displacement as they found their houses and other infrastructure destroyed.

The much awaited return of more than 5,000 Sipah families, who left their homes in 2012 owing to launch of military operation, was started on June 13 with the first batch of 415 families, only men, left for Dray Wandi on the same date.

Officials said that the return people to Sipah-inhabited areas of Sanda Pal, Dray Naghari, Nangrosa, Dray Wandi, Speen Drand, Sandana and Sheikh Mali Baba would be completed in different phases.

The returning families were directed by the local administration to reach Tharkho Kas for their registration and receipt of food and non-food items prior to their journey back home.

Turab Ali, an activist of Sipah Khidmat-i-Khalq Committee, told Dawn that the miserable condition of the road leading to the areas where the displaced families were to return had made their two-way journey more troubling and difficult as the vehicle they were travelling broke down several times.

He said that almost 99 per cent of the houses were completely destroyed and not fit for living while the government officials were insisting that the damage assessment survey would be started only when all the displaced families returned to their homes.

Mr Ali said that at present only some adult male members of the displaced families were registering their families at Tharkho Kas as they were reluctant to take their women and children along for fear of complete lack of basic facilities in the areas where they were destined to go back and start their lives afresh.

Waak Khan, Sharif Khan and Sial Khan, three of the Dray Wandi residents, however, took the risk of taking their entire families along but were struck by stormy rain soon after their arrival while having only one tent each for their families to take immediate shelter. They had to send back their children and women as their houses were completely destroyed.

Turab Ali said that security forces established a part-time health centre in a container in Sandana while a school for girls and two schools for boys were without teaching staff.

He added that students would return to the schools once the teachers were provided with a shelter to live in.

Javed Afridi, another member of the committee, said that alongside tents, the returning families needed free construction material to rebuild their damaged houses.

He said that food items too were scarce in the area as no bazaar existed in those localities. He added that the returning families faced acute shortage of edibles.

He said that there was also an urgent need for provision of clean drinking water along with prompt repair of the water channels for irrigation purpose.

Published in Dawn,June 18th, 2022