TIMERGARA, Sept 1: Thousands of displaced people left relief camps in Lower Dir and other parts of the NWFP and went back to their homes in the Bajaur Agency after security forces suspended their operation in the region.
Officials and relief workers said more than 75,000 displaced people had gone back from the Lower Dir district where the government with the assistance of foreign humanitarian bodies had established 35 camps. A majority of the relief camps now wear a deserted look.
NWFP Relief Commissioner Jamil Amjad told Dawn in Peshawar that 75,000 of 96,000 displaced people had retuned Bajaur from camps in Lower Dir and more displaced families were on the way back from Mardan and other areas.
He said 4,000 displaced people were living in camps in Mardan and hoped they would return Bajaur soon. He said the government would not wind up relief camps immediately.
The mass return of the displaced people started after the federal government announced suspending the military operation in the troubled areas of the NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, including Bajaur, during Ramazan.
Officials said over 250,000 displaced people had been registered.
Nearly all relief camps looked deserted in the Monda area where a cluster of relief camps had been established.
The Gadar camp in the Adenzai tehsil where 865 individuals lived was wound up.
In-charge of Ziarat Talash camp Shiraz Khan told Dawn that 240 of 262 families living in the camp had left for Bajaur and the remaining families were reluctant to leave. He said some families had no money to pay for transport fares and that was why they had decided to continue staying in camp.
District Coordination Officer Ghulam Mohammad, when contacted, said more than 90 per cent of displaced people had left for their homes on Sunday and Monday.
He pointed out that some displaced families in Talash, Kambat, Mayar and Timergara Degree College camps were still reluctant to leave, but he hoped they would leave the camps soon because normalcy was returning to Bajaur.
The president of the Al-Khidmat Foundation said six camps run by the organisation in Adenzai had been vacated and only 700 individuals were living in the base camp.
A representative of the United Nations said that despite large-scale return of displaced people, humanitarian organisations and NGOs would not abandon their activities. He said tent villages would not be wound up till normalcy returned to the conflict-hit areas.
Political authorities in the Bajaur region said the population of the area was 900,339, of which 264,000 had been displaced. The largest chunk of population migrated from Wara Mamund where around 100,000 of 133,032 people had left their homes. They said 9,000 of 47,042 had been displaced from Lar Madak, 20,000 of 37,016 from Lar Sadin, 60,000 of 87,189 from Khazana, Rashakai, Jar, Zorbandar, Enayat Killi and Sadiq Abad areas and 50,000 of 86,617 people had migrated for safer places from Nawagai.