After fleeing Tirah, thousands fail to find refuge

Camp officials are not registering IDPs because their identity cards have a Jamrud address۔


Asad Zia November 07, 2012

PESHAWAR: Nearly 5,000 families have left Tirah Valley for Jamrud due to the ongoing military operation in the past five months, but few have found refuge.

Head of the Kuki Khel Committee, Ikramullah Jan Kuki Khel, who has been working with internally displaced persons (IDPs), said that before 9/11, many people did not even know if Tirah Valley was part of Pakistan. “After 9/11, security forces begun thoroughly scanning all the checkpoints of Khyber Agency heading to Peshawar,” he said.

“Many had limited knowledge about the region and did not understand the addresses on our NICs,” Ikramullah said, adding that they faced a lot of trouble travelling to and fro from Peshawar without ‘proper’ addresses. The IDPs were then compelled to change their addresses on their new computerised NICs to locations in Jamrud.

Because of these ‘new’ addresses the IDPs are not allowed to register in camps in Jamrud, since camp officials refuse to accept that they are residents of Tirah after seeing their identity cards.

Bacha Gul, an elder from Tirah, said that he left his house with seven family members and has been living for the past month in a room with some relatives. He says he was given flour, oil and rice from the political administration, but was not allowed to register in the camp as it was only available to those from Tirah. Gul said he was from Rajgul village, but the present address on his NIC was in Jamrud.

The ongoing offensive against militancy in Khyber Agency has forced many tribesmen from Rajgul, Ghakhe, Wachay Wuano, Spodree, Sekh Kot, Seray, Srey Wally, Dawatoe, Tor Darra and Mehroban among other parts of the valley, to move to Jamrud and live with their relatives.

Jamrud Assistant Political Agent Bakhtiar Khan said that at least 2,000 families in the area had been registered and given food. He added that the camp administration and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Disaster Management Authority were working to solve the registration issues being faced by people leaving Tirah.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) spokesperson Adnan Khan said he would help provide basic facilities to those who were declared as affected families by the political administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2012.

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