Broken communication: FDMA washes hands off bombed IDP registration point

Claims camp at Tehmash Stadium was established without consulting them.

PESHAWAR:

The FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA), which is responsible for the displaced people from tribal areas, washed its hands off the Tehmash Khan Stadium registration point, where four people died in a suicide attack on Sunday.

According to FDMA Director General (DG) Arshad Khan, his organisation is the only one responsible for handling internally displaced persons (IDP) from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and this IDP registration point was not under the FDMA’s purview.

In the past, Arshad told The Express Tribune, he had opposed the establishment of such camps on grounds of security as the IDPs from Tirah Valley were mainly affiliated with banned outfit Ansarul Islam (AI). AI was involved in fighting with Lashkar-e-Islam since 2007 and in early 2013, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan gained control of the valley. At which point, people started evacuating Tirah, after which military operations are said to have wrested back the writ of state.

“The Khyber Agency political administration asked us last year to establish registration points in Peshawar. We told them it was not possible.”

The problem of registration

“We are primarily responsible for the return of IDPs so I wonder who established the camp (at the stadium) without as much as consulting us,” said Arshad.

Last year in March, FDMA started registering Tirah IDPs and registered more than 17,000 families in one go, he added.

“When the list was sent to NADRA for verification, they only verified 13,500 families so we started providing ration to these families only. At least 6,200 registered and 6,500 non-registered families have returned with our help last year in October,” he added.

Families are often not verified by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) because of a lack of official identification.

The DG shared that at Dabori point, the disaster management authority had provided every returning family with free transport, non-food kits, a hygiene kit and a monthly ration for six months.

“We also provide cash support in the amount of Rs25,000 per family. Rs100 million, which was approved for 4,000 families, will soon be distributed among the registered IDPs,” he said.

The registration point for Bar Qamaber Khel sub tribe has been established in Sadda, Lower Kurram and in Jarma, Kohat for the Malikdin Khel clan – the latter en route to Tirah, said Arshad. And, the DG clarified, there was no other recognised registration point anywhere else for the people of Tirah.

“There are 7,200 remaining families which are registered and we plan to send them back to Tirah soon.”

“As per our schedule, non-registered families will be registered between May 30 and June 5. We have established a system by which local elders will verify the documents of these people and we will help them return, and as planned, the political administration will assist us only in the verification process.”

“We knew about the threats to Tirah IDPs and avoided any point for them in Peshawar but someone else took the decision and the result is evident,” said the DG.

When contacted, Bara Assistant Political Agent Nasir Khan said they had established two points – one in Kala Khel, Khyber Agency and another in Tehmash Khan Stadium – for the registration of non-registered families.

“The process will continue despite the deadly suicide attack and IDPs will be facilitated in their return home to Tirah valley,” he said. More than 4,000 families have been registered so far at these two points, claimed Nasir.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.