For rights: Tirah IDPs threaten to protest on Eid day

IDPs say they will spend day outside Governor House

PESHAWAR: The displaced population of Tirah, Khyber Agency has threatened to spend their Eid day outside Governor House in Peshawar as the political administration has failed to address their needs.

“How is it possible for us to think about celebrating Eid when we are living [under miserable circumstances] in Jalozai,” Kanayat Khan Afridi said while talking to The Express Tribune at a protest camp outside Peshawar Press Club on Friday.

Kanayat Khan was accompanied by around a dozen other tribespeople who are on token protest since the beginning Ramazan. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader from Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Iqbal Afridi, was leading the protesters and the protest camp.



Kanayat, who belongs to the Malik Din Khel clan of the Afridi tribe, said he along with hundreds of other tribespeople abandoned their houses in Nakki, Tirah when armed forces announced launching of military action in 2009 last.

Iqbal Afridi told The Express Tribune rulers were making business in the name of tribespeople. He added they were being made victims of terror, military action, forced to displace and their houses were demolished – and later declared displaced persons, but they are ignored after the authorities concerned get aid from rest of the world.

He said he and all the stalwarts from his party, from across Fata, will be on protest in front of Governor House on Eid day just to force the government to realise its responsibilities regarding the displaced tribespeople.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2016.