LANDI KOTAL, May 2: Hundreds of Kukikhel families recently displaced from Tirah are living in miserable conditions in Kurram Agency as the authorities concerned have so far denied them registration.

Officials of Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) at Durrani camp near Sadda, Kurram Agency, said that the Khyber Agency political administration had not yet notified the Kukikhels as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and as such they could not initiate their registration.

Most of these families are now living near Sadda in houses abandoned by Shias after these were torched and destroyed in the 2007 Shia-Sunni riots in Kurram Agency.

“Most of the houses being used by the Kukikhels for living now are without roofs, doors and boundary walls and thus these people were exposed to all types of hazards,” Haji Almas Khan, a Kukikhel elder, told Dawn by phone from Sadda.

He said that Khyber Agency political administration had authorised the FDMA officials to register at Durrani camp only the Malikdinkhel, Bar Qambarkhel, Shalobar and Akkakhel tribesmen evicted from Tirah after the Taliban seizure of their regions in mid March.

“But a similar facility is denied to about 1,800 Kukikhel families despite several appeals as they too have been forced to flee the area after the Taliban takeover of Bagh-Maidan,” he said.

The FDMA officials in Peshawar contended that the Bagh-Maidan area was not inhabited by Kukikhels and as such they were not entitled to registration.

Irkamullah Jan Kukikhel, another elder from the same tribe and an independent candidate for NA-45, said that the families now residing in dilapidated houses in the suburbs of Sadda were genuine affected people and they needed official assistance.

He said that he had personally visited Durrani camp and met the affected families who awaited urgent official attention.

He said that he had brought the matter into the notice of Kurram political administration, who promised to take up the matter with the high authorities.

Mr Jan regretted that his repeated calls to the political agent Khyber fell on deaf ears as to why registration was denied to the Kukikhel IDPs, who were forced to flee Tirah along with other tribesmen.

When contacted, PA Khyber Mutahir Zeb said that he had written to the Fata Disaster Management Authority and the registration of Kukikhel tribesmen at Durrani camp would start soon.