NOWSHERA, Jan 21: Around 390 families from Khyber Agency took refuge in Jalozai's internally displaced persons' camp on Saturday as an intensified crackdown on militants has triggered displacements from Shaluber tribe's area, officials said.

A meeting of the Peshawar-based officials of international aid agencies, including UNHCR and WFP, has been scheduled for Monday at the Provincial Disaster Management Authority's (PDMA) offices to review the emergency, determining future course of action, according to Faiz Mohammad, chief coordinator (IDPs), PDMA.

'Between 3,000 and 5,000 Shalubar families are estimated to leave their homes and head to other places for personal safety,' said Noor Akbar Afridi, in-charge of IDPs' camp in Jalozai, some 20 kilometers east of Peshawar.

A large number of families left Qamberabad, Surkas and other villages inhabited by Shaluber tribe in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on Friday. People began leaving their houses after hearing that the government has decided to extend IDP status to members of the Shaluber tribe in view of intensified crackdown.

Paramilitary Frontier Corps, backed-up by the army, has enlarged the ambit of its crackdown on Lashkar-e-Islam led by notorious Mangal Bagh in Bara plains, making thousands noncombatant tribal people flee from Qamberabad and Surkas villages on Friday and Saturday.

A large number of tribal families gathered outside the registration office of Jalozai camp waited for their turn in lines on Saturday, seeking IDP status. The camp administration had set up three desks for 'enlisting' the names of the heads of families applying for accommodation in the camp. Two separate desks were set up with teams of male and female staff for verifying documents of the enlisted families.

'Only those (men) will get the IDP status that have brought their families (female members) and would stay in the camp, Mr Faiz told Dawn.

According to him, a total of 543 families have been registered by the Jalozai camp authorities during the past two days following which they were subjected to the officially prescribed verification process.

Some 472 tribal families had been extended the IDP status and allotted tents in the camp and given other items, including hygiene kits, buckets, and jerry canes, the official added.

He said PDMA had been directed by the political administration of Khyber Agency to register as IDPs only Shaluber tribe's members, seeking temporary refuge at the Jalozai camp.

Khyber Agency's families belonging to tribes other than Shaluber, he added, would not be extended the IDP status in line with the political administration's decision.

In October last year, the government had extended the IDP status to Sipoh and Malikdin Khel tribes after paramilitary force launched action against Lashkar-e-Islam in their areas.

The Jalozai camp, according to its in-charge Mr Afridi, has some 3436 Khyber Agency families, living in tents and relying on monthly food handouts provided to them every month by World Food Program.

A PDMA official said intimation to the effect of a latest wave of displacements from Khyber Agency had been made to the Authority few days back by the political administration of Khyber Agency, requiring it to extend logistic support to the newly displaced families.

The camp in-charge said they had started pitching extra tents to accommodate the newly arrived displaced persons.

The camp, he added, had ample open space to accommodate the estimated number of families from Shaluber.

The camp administration is set to receive a number of Shaluber families that left their area for personal safety long ago and have been living on their own in Peshawar's suburbs.

Mohib Gul, from Surkas village in the Bara area, said he had been living in a rented house in Jamrud since leaving his ancestral place two years ago.

'It has not been safe for quite some time, so we left the area much earlier,' said Gul, who brought his family of five to the Jalozai camp seeking the IDP status.

'Since they have started extending the IDP status to Shaluber members only now, therefore, I brought my family along with a hope to get a tent and start receiving monthly food handouts,' he said. Mr Gul said fighting between security forces and militants in his area had been going on since long, becoming intense a few days ago.