Displaced people in Pakistan want package for rehabilitation

Khalid Kheshgi

PESHAWAR: Majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs) at the Katcha Garhi camp are eager to go back to their respective areas, but want the government and donor agencies to announce a comprehensive rehabilitation package for them before they could return home.

“Let a durable peace return to Bajaur and we will return to our village. We have no wish to live as refugees in our own country,” said the grey-bearded Zahir Khan, who was holding a chit for receiving food items from one of the stores at the tented Katcha Garhi camp, located in the suburbs of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Peshawar.

Like Zahir Khan, most of the displaced people from Bajaur Agency have yet to believe that a permanent settlement had reached between the Taliban and security forces in the troubled Mamond and Charmang areas of Bajaur Agency.

“We heard about ceasefire in Charmang but will not believe it as such agreements had been violated either by the government or Taliban in the past,” a young man, sitting beside aged Zahir Khan, interrupted. He added that last time when a truce was announced prior to holy month of Ramazan in Bajaur Agency, his family hired a truck at Rs12,000 and went to Halqi in Charmang but hardly spent a few days in their home, and had to rush back to the camp as there was no halt to the army operation in the native area.

Katcha Garhi, which once housed an Afghan refugees’ camp, was established in September 2008 for the IDPs when the security forces launched an operation against militants in Bajaur Agency, which led to the displacement of thousands of tribesmen from Bajaur and neighbouring Mohmand Agency.

Inhabited by about 2,500 families from the violence-hit Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies and Swat district, the administration of the camp said there were no arrangements for the coming summer season when the temperature reaches about 50 degree centigrade.

Administrator of the camp Arbab Arshad Pervez said the waterproof tents at the camp had probably protected the IDPs from the chilly weather but would hardly save the displaced people from the forthcoming sizzling heat, adding that there were no proper arrangements for the summer at the camp.

He hoped that after permanent peace in Bajaur and Swat, majority of the camp’s dwellers would opt for going back to their hometowns.

But the government as well as donor agencies should announce a special rehabilitation package on the pattern of Afghan refugees, he suggested. He said about 104 families, belonging to Swat, had shifted from Jalozai camp to Katcha Garhi camp last month, so there was no space for more IDPs at Katcha Garhi.

However, Mohammad Gul, from Bajaur, said they were not happy in the camp but were living there because they did not want to risk their lives by going to their native agency where the Taliban were still calling the shots.

He said a person named Ghafur Malik was reportedly killed by unknown people in Charmang after he left the camp a few days back. “We have no money or stock of foods to return and live in Bajaur as we left all our belongings including cattle, grains and other household items in our hometowns at the time of reaching the camp,” said Muhammad Gul, who hails from Lalkhel Charmang.

Bacha Khan, an influential person from Nawagai in Bajaur, said his house had been occupied by the security forces for the last several months, and would be vacated once a durable peace was restored to the area.

“I fear our children would not resist the sizzling summer as being the dwellers of mountainous area they are not immune to hot seasons,” he said, while adding that majority of the IDPs from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies were not feeling well in tents and camps.