Though desperately wanting to return to their homes, the families displaced from Khyber Agency and currently living in parts of Peshawar district are worried about the presence of religious extremists and imposition of prolonged curfews in the tribal district.

Those living in joint families and dealing in various business activities are least worried as they have already planned to have the second option in case they feel uneasy on return to their villages. However, the poor people, especially the sole breadwinners, are dissatisfied with the official arrangements made for the rehabilitation of displaced persons.

Shopkeepers at the newly-established Bhatathal IDP Bazaar said many of them had purchased land and properties and set up businesses.

“There will be over 6,000 shops, kiosks of IDPs only in Sarband, Batathal areas who were charging reasonable prices and thus attracted customers from different parts of Peshawar.

They recalled that on arrival from Khyber Agency the land property in Bhatathal area was very cheap where the IDPs had hired spaces for setting up of shops and some of them had purchased but now the rates had risen manifold. Six years ago, one marla land was selling at around Rs10,000 but now it reached Rs200,000. Rent of shops has also surged.

The people of the lush green Tirah Valley are of the view that they had suffered enough, so they’re ready to abandon luxuries of the city for the transparent water of springs and salubrious climate of their villages.

However, they complained about the excessive security checks and unexpected curfews in their tribal region.

The closure of educational institutions, they said, is another reason that forced them to stay away from their villages as they’d admitted their children to different schools in Peshawar.

The disadvantaged people are a little bit hesitant to return because their houses have either been destroyed or partially damaged and the government has yet to support them for their reconstruction or repairs.

“We first left our homes after the administration asked us to shift to safer places before the start of operation against militants. However, we returned because life in displacement was very harsh. However, we left the area again when administration asked to vacate houses immediately. We have been facing problems for over five years,” the shopkeepers living in Sarband area of Peshawar told Dawn.

The people said they had left behind their household items, livestock and standing crops, sacrificed their children’s education and moved to an undisclosed destination before leaving their hometowns.

They said they were patriotic citizens of the country and left their homes for the sake of the country only otherwise religious extremists had asked the people to stay at home and avoid migration.

In Sarband area on the outskirts of Peshawar, elderly shopkeeper Darshan Singh said he had a vast business in Afghanistan, where the delicate law and order situation had forced him to shift to Tirah Valley many years ago but he again migrated from the area when a forceful operation against militants was launched in Bara and Tirah valley as well.

Of the hundreds of Sikh families, he said only four had returned to Tirah valley and the rest were avoiding repatriation due to destruction of their homes.

“The government has allowed the people to return home but they need financial resources to reconstruct damaged homes and restart business,” he said.

Another young Sikh, Manjeet Singh, who deals in cosmetics business, said he had a cloth shop in Shahbaz Plaza of Bara Bazaar but lost everything suffering a loss of around Rs1.2 million.

He stressed the need for payment of compensation to the displaced families so that they could re-arrange some business activity.

Same were the woes of Reshpal Singh, who said his family had vast business of foreign cloth and the displacement caused him a loss of about Rs5 million as most of the customers had shifted to far-off cities and his family had no contact with them to recover the money.

Taxi driver Ghuncha Gul said he was in Hyderabad when the anti-Taliban military operation was launched but the displacement of family forced him to shift to Peshawar.

“I had built a very beautiful house in Bara by spending at least Rs1.2 million but it was completely destroyed in rocket attacks,” he said.

Complaining about the slow process of registration, Zahir Majeed said he wanted to return home but he was not allowed.

He demanded early reopening of roads and Bara Bazaar saying the people could return and begin leading a normal life.

Said Meran Akkakhel said the people were given Rs35,000 on a single registration card, which had created problems for many people.

He said the faulty registration system had created problems for the joint families as those having registration cards had returned, while many of their family members were not allowed to go with them for being unregistered.

The IDP said the problems facing the people could be resolved unless Bara Bazaar was restored and restriction on the people’s movement was removed.

He asked for the reopening of schools and healthcare centres in Khyber Agency, saying curfew should be lifted permanently so that the people could return home easily.

Zahir Mohammad Malak Dinkhel said he used to visit his house located close to Peshawar but water and power supply was almost non-existent there forcing people to avoid return to homes.

The problems repeatedly mentioned by IDPs were about the slow process of registration, payment of the relief money of Rs35000 and insufficient ration.

They demanded big families be provided with sufficient food items.

The displaced persons point out that many of them had applied to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority for financial support to restart business but a positive response had yet to be given.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2015

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