KHYBER: The district administration on Friday announced an allocation of Rs40 million for the rehabilitation of the recently returned internally displaced families in Tirah valley.

Talking to representatives of different tribes from Bara and Tirah areas during a meeting here, additional deputy commissioner (relief) Nauman Ali Shah said the administration wanted to compensate returnees for their damaged houses to ensure early reconstruction and therefore, top priority would be accorded to the start of the Citizen Losses Compensation Programme.

He said funds would also be used to rebuild schools and health units and water schemes, repair irrigation canals and channels, revive agricultural sector, and conduct the CLCP survey.

Mr Shah said some NGOs had been engaged to help execute development schemes to alleviate the sufferings of IDPs and ensure they restart life.

Local official says compensation administration’s top priority

“We [administration] are aware of the problems confronted by returned families and want to initiate all projects on war footing to provide the maximum facilities to them,” he said.

The government recently announced the return of thousands of Kukikhel and Sipah families to their respective regions but most of them refused to go back citing a lack of basic facilities there as the reason.

Sources said only one or two male members of every displaced family were sent to the registration centres when they got themselves registered and received a cash amount along with other essential goods.

Majority of the families have long been demanding the holding of a damage assessment survey for their houses ahead of their return. Most houses were destroyed by fleeing militants ahead of the 2012 military operation and damaged by harsh weather during the last 10 years.

ONE KILLED: A man was killed and nine people, including women and children, injured in separate road accidents here on Friday.

The traffic police said a passenger van skidded off the road and overturned in Sandana area of Tirah valley killing the driver.

They said speeding caused the accident.

Also, five people, including women and children, suffered critical injuries after a speeding trailer hit two vehicles, which they travelled in, near Bhagiyari checkpost in Jamrud area.

The Rescue 1122 workers shifted the injured to a local hospital.

Local journalist Fareeduddin and his two brothers were injured after the car they rode collided with another head-on.

Fareeduddin and his elder brother were shifted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, while his younger brother, who suffered minor injuries, was discharged by the hospital after treatment.

HELD: The police on Friday arrested four people, including a Peshawar-based constable, after seizing arms in the Ali Masjid area of Jamrud tehsil.

They said police constable Sohrab Ali of the Pishtakhara police station in Peshawar, was taken into custody with a pistol and a bottle of liquor after being found drunk at a picnic place in Ali Masjid area.

The police arrested four people in the same area over drug smuggling and truck robberies.

They recovered a pistol and 3,000 grams of charas from them and shifted them to the Jamrud lockup for interrogation.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2022