Lost in crisis: Some 10% people of North, South Waziristan still living as IDPs

FDMA claims 90% of the internally displaced persons have safely returned to their homes

PESHAWAR: The Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) has claimed that 90 per cent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have safely returned to their homes, and only 10 per cent of people from North and South Waziristan agencies are living in other parts of the country.

FDMA Operations and Relief Assistant Director Mian Adil Zahoor said this while talking to The Express Tribune.



The latest FDMA statistics show that 4,48,556 people had been displaced from various troubled regions since 2007 due to a rise in militant activity and ensuing military operations.

These areas include the Frontier Region-Tank (FR-Tank), Bajaur Agency, Khyber Agency, Kurram Agency, Mohmand Agency, North and South Waziristan and Orakzai Agency.

However, the documents also show that some 4,09,831 registered IDPs returned to their homes after normalcy returned to their areas.

Talking to the Express Tribune, the FDMA official said that the FDMA, with the support of partner organisations, has been helping the IDPs by offering tents, non-food items, and cash backing.

The number of registered IDPs sent back to their homes include 72,895 people from Bajaur, 2,014 from FR-Tank, 89,172 from Khyber Agency, and 33,024 people from Kurram Agency. Similarly, it also includes 36,759 people from Mohmand Agency, 83,241 and 56,903 from North and South Waziristan, respectively, and 35,823 from Orakzai.

A FATA Secretariat official, on the condition of anonymity, said some of the areas in North and South Waziristan and Khyber Agency were still not in ready for the locals to return.



In those areas, completely devoid of basic facilities, nothing really exists at the moment for the IDPs as the majority of the houses and infrastructure has been destroyed during military operations, the official explained.

Coming back to the FDMA statistics, it has also been revealed that a huge number of IDPs migrated to the neighbouring Afghanistan.

Some 1,634 families of Waziristan IDPs including 2,136 male, 2,535 female and 3,188 children who had migrated to Afghanistan have returned back to their hometowns, said the FDMA statistics.

Another 2,98,163 IDPs have returned to North and South Waziristan and Khyber, Orakzai and Kurram Agencies, it added.

Zahoor, the FDMA official, also shed light on the process of IDPs’ registration process in the city.

He said they have set up 10 waiting areas for male and female IDPs with 20 registration desks with four mobile health units, 20 water tanks, and five ambulances.

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has also established four facilitation centres where displaced families were being provided with refreshment boxes, mineral water and polio vaccination, apart from many other facilities, the FDMA official added.