Stuck in the middle: Leaving behind violence in Lyari, families face inner turmoil at camps

Women, children complain of being under enormous mental stress while living in camps.

BADIN:

Displaced physically and exhausted mentally, families of Lyari who have been living at the Dargah Abdul Haque alias Shah Gurio for more than a month cannot wait to head back. But they realise that the chances of going home anytime soon are unlikely.

Around 500 in number, the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) left Lyari because of an ongoing clash between two groups of the area and are currently residing at a camp which has 90 small tents. Ahmed Abdul Rehman, 56, is one of them.



The sole supporter of his family, he has a donkey cart and earns between Rs300 to 400 daily. Rehman has four children, the youngest one being 7-year-old Ali Asghar who can’t wrap his mind around why his family was living at a camp which was more than 200 kilometres away from his home.

“They [gangsters] want to occupy my home. They’ll set it on fire and then will make their own office there,” Asghar believes. “I miss my friends who used to play with me outside my house.”

The young boy said that there was no playground in his neighbourhood back home but the narrow streets were a thrilling venue to engage in games. “Here [outside the shrine] is just jungle and I like houses around me,” said Asghar, adding that he was also missing his school. “I don’t even have books here and don’t know where I’ll study now.”

Remembering Eid last year, the boy told The Express Tribune that he was given ‘new currency’ notes. “I collected a large amount of Eidi last year and bought ice cream and toffees and also spent some money on video games,” he recalled. “I have some money this time but there is nothing to buy.”



Hearing his son speak, a teary eyed Rehman smiled. “He doesn’t know what is going on in his area and I want to keep him away from that situation. My kids are all I have and I want them to become good human beings and be free from fear.”

The father wasn’t sure whether his children would continue their studies or will have a good future. “I want Asghar to study but for now, I haven’t thought about his future.  What matters right now is to save his life.”

Moving on

Haji Yousuf, 58, was in the first group of the IDPs from Lyari who reached the shrine on July 3. According to Yousuf, around 60 persons moved from the area. He left the shrine to go back to Lyari a few days ago but his homecoming was short-lived. “We hardly spent a few days in Lyari but as things got worse again, we moved back to the shrine,” he said. “I was hardly 12 years old when I migrated for the first time during the 1971 war. When the war ended, we resettled in the area but the current situation is painful.”

The camp is full of such people - women and children spend their days and nights around the camp and the village while the men visit Badin, Talhar and often Karachi and come back to camp before sunset. Young children are given small tasks such as arranging meals, looking after the elderly and to keep an eye around the camp, especially at night.

Poor conditions

The tents in the camp have been set up near graves and the IDPs are served meals in groups but without utensils. Prior to Eid, there were no proper sanitation arrangements as well but according to the IDPs, a local NGO set up six small toilets. “The state and criminals are behaving in the same manner with us. Are we war prisoners?” questioned Ilyas, another IDP. He said that staying at the camp, worrying about the situation in Lyari and the non-serious attitude of the government has been a source of enormous mental stress for the women and children. “Women argue with each other or weep together. We are facing two wars, mental and physical.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2013.