A departure from Pukhtunwali?: Khyber IDPs return to the cold embrace of a distrustful city

Villagers used to be willing to provide shelter for IDPs in their houses but this is no longer the case.

PESHAWAR:

Rented houses are hard to find these days in southern suburban Peshawar due to the large influx of displaced families from Khyber Agency spurred by Operation Khyber-1.

Villagers used to have a soft spot for internally displaced persons (IDP) and were willing to provide them shelter in their hujras and houses but this is no longer the case. Locals have been victims of atrocities committed by militants and blame Khyber Agency-based tribesmen for their suffering.



Some of the affluent residents still provide food to the IDPs from the adjacent agency but most people have kept a distance from the displaced families; a departure from the deeply-ingrained Pukhtun hospitality.

Not cornering the housing market

“I have seen dozens of families with their cattle searching for houses in Masho Khel, Badhaber, Sheikhan, Sarband and Sangu but there are no more rented houses in the area,” said local elder and former niab nazim Faiz Muhammad while talking to The Express Tribune. “And no one is willing to shelter these people from Khyber Agency who are considered the mother of all evil by locals.”

“There are different routes and hundreds of families are reaching Peshawar using those routes every day,” said Muhammad. “We do not offer free accommodation to [IDPs] but some rich people have arranged food for them.”

Clearly out of options

According to another elder, people leaving Khyber Agency for safer ground are mainly those who need help as the wealthy families left the agency years ago.

“All those who can afford to, have purchased plots and houses in different parts of Peshawar and only those who are really poor and can’t afford to do so have been left behind,” he said.

Gul Madar, a resident of Akka Khel now in Peshawar, said he spent 40 years in Doha in Qatar—including 10 years in a jail there—and returned to the agency two years ago after completing his sentence. That is when he discovered his three sons had left his wife and three daughters behind without any support. Now his family had been forced to seek shelter in Sheikhan village where the best they could find was a mud house.

“First I was deported from Doha empty-handed and now I have been left hand-to-mouth because of this operation; we have left nearly every household item behind,” he said.

Pir Muhammad from Shalober, Khyber Agency is also among the IDPs who reached Sarband with his family. “There is no transport and all the main roads are closed so you have to walk at least three to four miles to reach the border of Peshawar and Khyber Agency,” explained Muhammad. “From there, you can hire a vehicle which often costs more than Rs2,000 to take you to these villages where there are no houses.”

He added he sold his goats to get money to reach Peshawar where he was expecting the government would provide him with at least a tent but it turned out that was also not going to work out for him.

“We have been left on our own,” said Muhammad. “This is the third time we have been forced to leave our homes and every time we return with hope that the situation will improve but peace really is a distant reality.”

Third time’s [not] the charm

A Federal Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) official had earlier told The Express Tribune almost 99% of those who have arrived from Khyber Agency have been registered previously as IDPs in 2009 and 2011. In fact, the current number of Khyber Agency IDPs already registered in Peshawar hovers at nearly 52,000 (till end September) and nearly 9,000 in Nowshera.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a spokesperson of FDMA, Haseeb, said two different ‘enlistment’ points exist—one in Lala Khandao near Ali Masjid and the other in Peshawar; the third one in Orazkai has not been opened.

“They are being listed and those who are coming in cars are being provided transportation charges,” stated Haseeb. “Those who are on foot are being provided transport by FDMA to go as far as Pabbi in Nowshwera.” Or, he added, they could go to any village in between.

“Most of these people already have an official IDP status and there is no official return for them as they went back homes on their own accord but all of them are being listed again,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2014.