S Waziristan unrest: IED blast injures 12 security personnel

Assistant political agent says repatriation of IDPs to start from March 16.

PESHAWAR: At least 12 members of the security forces were injured on Saturday when a bomb planted by the roadside went off in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), officials told The Express Tribune.

The assailants who had planted the improvised explosive device were targeting a security convoy in Sarwakai area of South Waziristan when it was heading to Dera Ismail Khan, officials said.

The injured personnel were taken to hospital for treatment. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, they said.

IDPs return

Nawab Safi, the assistant political agent of South Waziristan, announced that the repatriation of internally displaced persons would begin from March 16. Families of these IDPs will be sent back to 14 villages of South Waziristan’s Sarwakai and Sararogha tehsils.

People of five tehsils of Mehsud area of SWA including Sararogha, Sarwakai, Tiarza, Makin, and Ladha were displaced due to Operation Rah-e-Nejat launched in 2009 against militants.

Safi said that in the new phase about 8,000 families will be repatriated back to South Waziristan. So far, 11,924 families displaced from the tribal agency have been repatriated. About 79,000 were displaced in the 2009 operation.

Each returning family will receive cash assistance worth Rs25,000 through ATMs in addition to Rs10,000 for transport. The registration of IDPs families will start from March 8 to 11, at Political Compound SWA, the official added

He said that the areas the IDPs are returning to have been cleared of militants. The people coming home will be surprised to see different development work in the area, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2015.