KHYBER: The militancy-hit residents of Tirah Valley and Upper Bara have blasted the elected representatives for failing to address their grievances since their return to their homes in 2015 and 2022, respectively.

MNA Iqbal Afridi and MPA Abdul Ghani, who is also chairman of the District Development Advisory Committee, are yet to visit upper Bara, residents complained, saying they were now pinning their hopes on new Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, who also belongs to Bara.

The Khyber district administration and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority also have failed to complete the assessment survey of the damaged houses while residents are compelled to either live in dilapidated houses or have taken shelter in temporary abodes to get through harsh winter.

Most of the displaced families returned to Tirah back in 2015 and 2016, while families from Upper Bara localities were allowed to go back in 2022 after the region was de-notified.

Complain survey of damaged houses not completed, forcing them to live in dilapidated structures

Ironically, more than 2,500 families from the region with mostly hailing from Upper Bara were not given the status of internally displaced persons at the time of their forced displacement and were thus deprived of most of the facilities and assistance pledged by the disaster management authorities to IDPs of other regions.

Residents Dawn spoke to presented a long list of their problems, which they had been facing since their return, with immediate reconstruction of their fully and partially damaged homes as their urgent requirement.

They said they were still awaiting provision of drinking water, electricity, rehabilitation of health and educational facilities, repair of damaged irrigation channels, provision of quality seeds along with modern agricultural machinery and tools, construction of bridges over Bara River and creation of jobs for local unemployed youth.

Khalil Khan, a social activist, told Dawn that literacy rate in most parts of Tirah was rapidly declining due to absence of formal schooling, while people faced extreme difficulties in acquiring better health facilities due to nonexistence of a well-equipped hospital in the entire valley.

The Type-D Hospital, announced in 2015 by then Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan was yet to be constructed, he lamented and added most people either relied on private clinics or took patients to Bara, Jamrud and Peshawar hospitals.

He warned Tirah youth could easily fall prey to insinuations of terrorist groups as they were mostly uneducated and thus unemployed. “It’s time Tirah youth were engaged in productive activities by imparting them skills development training and recruiting them to police and other departments,” he suggested.

Suhbat Shah Afridi, a resident of Upper Bara, said they had so far received limited assistance from some NGOs while the security forces stationed in the region also helped execute certain development schemes.

He, however, regretted that parliamentarians were yet to announce any development project. “The provincial government shall encourage NOGs to initiate mega projects for our region to alleviate the sufferings of the returned families,” he demanded.

“At present, it seems our region is not included in the domain of the government departments and thus we have no or little access to the basic facilities of life,” he stated.

Dawn approached MNA Iqbal Afridi and MPA Abdul Ghani for their response to complaints from Tirah residents but none responded till filing of this story.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2025