LANDI KOTAL: Despite having meagre resources and fewer opportunities for entertainment, thousands of recently returned families of the militancy-hit Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency are upbeat about celebrating Eidul Fitr in their ancestral area after remaining internally displaced persons for nearly half a decade.

With the historic Bara Market not fully functional yet, most of the residents of Akkakhel, Malakdinkhel, Shalobar, Sipah, Kamarkhel and Bar Qambar throng Batta Thal Market, situated at the border between Bara and Peshawar.

They buy a variety of commodities including bakery items, sweets, confectionaries, vermicelli, soft drinks, dried fruits, fresh fruits, rice, vegetables and other necessary daily use items. Most of the Bara buyers, however, complain about increase in prices of all the edibles and other daily use items.

Tribesmen say law and order situation has improved in most parts of the region

“The shopkeepers have unjustly raised rates to fleece the poor Bara residents on the eve of Eidul Fitr, knowing the fact that most of them have very limited financial resources,” said Khiyali Shah, a resident of Shalobar.

The children and youth were conspicuous by their presence in a large number as they thronged shoe shops and toyshops with little girls asking their parents to buy bangles and henna.

Abdur Rehman, an excited eight-year-old boy, said that he would eat sweets and Kabuli Pulao on Eid day and would go to a children park in Peshawar along with his parents.

Azizullah, a teenager, and his cousin Farman Khan were seen in a heated bargain over pricing while buying scents and perfumes of their choice from a vendor in Batta Thal Market. Both of them said that they had tailored new clothes for Eid and had planned to go to Murree along with a group of other youngsters from their native locality in Nala Malakdinkhel.

Turab Ali, a social worker from Sipah tribe, told Dawn that majority of the recently returned families of his tribe were simply overjoyed as they had suffered badly while living outside Bara as IDPs. The Sipah tribesmen were the last to return to their homes early this year while the Akkakhels were the first to get back to their area in March last year.

“It is for the first time since 2009 that we will be celebrating Eid in our own homes. We are naturally overexcited and upbeat,” said Mr Ali. He added that preparations were also afoot to offer Eid prayers at different main centres of Malakdinkhel, Akkakhel, Sipah and Bar Qambarkhel.

He said that local youth had arranged night sporting activities during the month of fasting and finals of a cricket and a football tournament would be played at Speen Qabar Chowk either a day ahead of Eid or on Eid day.

“Speen Qabar Chowk had witnessed some gruesome killings and bloodshed when a local militant group established headquarters here when it was in control of Bara,” recalled Mr Ali. He said that the local residents were determined to convert the place into a centre of entertainment and healthy activities.

Bazaar Gul Afridi, a resident of Shalobar, said that the coming Eid was a source of double happiness for him and most of Bara residents as they had also resettled in their homes after living a miserable life in camps and rented houses outside Bara for over five years.

“The law and order situation has considerably improved in most parts of Bara and local residents now freely visit their friends and relatives and it reflects the revival of our decades-old cultural values,” he said. He added that hujra culture was also reinvigorated with people of all ages converging in hujras to discuss local issues.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2016