Winter relief: FDMA releases 3-month package to North Waziristan IDPs

MIRANMSHAH: The FATA Disaster Manage­ment Authority (FDMA) has released funds worth over Rs520 million for the 15,200 families of internally displaced people (IDPs) of the North Waziristan tribal district still living in Baka Khel IDPs camp in Bannu.

“We are cognisant of the situation at the advent of the winter season,” FDMA Director General Sohail Khan said during a meeting. “We are releasing the three-month financial aid package which will help displaced people to get equipped for the coming harsh weather,” he said.

FDMA has asked Baka Khel camp’s authority to help IDPs in acquiring the assistance, Sohail Khan said. “We should take every measure to help mitigate the sufferings of IDPs in camps,” he said.

The North Waziristan residents had been displaced in 2014 after security forces had lunched military operation in the EX agency, which forced displacement of some 100,000 people to ex-frontier region of Baka Khel.

Over 2,773 families who went to neighbouring Khost province of Afghanistan are still waiting for green signal from the federal government and security forces to return to their homes.

Beside to the North Wazir­istan, FDMA is also looking after the remaining 1,132 displaced families of Khyber district living in the IDP camps.

Resident of the North Waziristan and Khyber tribal districts were agitation against the FDMA from some months that they have been promised to financial and edible packages assistance, but after few months protest, now FDMA has released the fund of three months at once.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2018.