GUL Rehman (23) received the shock of his life when he saw his three rooms house completely gutted when he last visited his village in Bagh-Maidan during the month of Ramazan.

Father of an 18-month-old daughter, Gul Rehman, and his wife left behind all their personal belongings and fled to bordering Orakzai Agency after Taliban made a ‘triumphant’ entry to Bagh-Maidan area of Tirah by defeating their rival militant group Ansaarul Islam on March 18 this year.

Gul Rehman later rented a house at Miskeen chowk in Peshawar along with his family members and started working as a daily wager. When he heard that army had reclaimed Bagh-Maidan from Taliban, he along with some friends visited the area to find massive destruction by Taliban.

“We saw complete destruction of a large number of houses in Naway Bagh area, our native village which is on a 20-minute walk from Bagh Markar, the main market of the area,” he said, adding that most of the houses were torched by the Taliban after looting them and some were later bombed by air force fighter planes when they conducted air strikes during a military offensive against Taliban.

And like Gul Rehman, 25-year-old Javed Khan is also faced with the same dilemma as his five-room double storey house has also been razed to the ground by militants.

“Insecurity, food scarcity and health issues apart, most of the returning IDPs from Tirah had their houses either burnt to ashes or dynamited by the Taliban,” a concerned Javed Khan says as he impatiently waits at Jerma food distribution hub near Kohat to get his family registered for the return journey to Tirah valley.

Both Gul Rehman and Javed Khan wanted the Fata Disaster Management Authority and other donor agencies to provide them shelter so that their families could be saved from an impending harsh winter in Tirah valley.

For most of the returning families, the immediate task they are confronted with is the reconstruction of their damaged houses.

Fata Disaster Management Authority has embarked upon a return plan of more than 17,000 families displaced from Tirah after the Taliban captured the area in March.

Director General FDMA Arshad Khan says that the return process would be completed in two phases with the first phase already begun on Sept 15 and will continue till Oct 15. He added that the second phase would be started in March next year during which families who had opted to escape the harsh Tirah winter would be repatriated to their respective areas.

The three months of Taliban occupation not only displaced almost all the residents of the area but it also saw a destruction of business centres and seriously affecting the agricultural activities in the region. Most of the Bagh-Maidan residents were relying heavily on their agricultural products especially poppy and cannabis. Vegetables and fruits like potato, onion, turnip, apple and peach were other sources of income and livelihood for a major population of the area.

Naseebullah had a fruit and vegetable stall at the Bagh Markaz before the Taliban occupation of Tirah and he would also help his father and brothers to cultivate different types of vegetables at their fields along with other major cash crops of poppy and cannabis.

He said that he lost all his capital and other valuable belongings when he hurriedly left his house in Karla Khel village of Malikdin Khel.

“Weather will be our biggest enemy as winter starts early in most parts of Tirah and we will not be able to cultivate any crop on our land due to excessive cold,” he said and adding that most of the people were without warm clothing, quilts and blankets.

He said that militants had also exhausted all their fire wood they had stocked for the coming winter. “We will definitely rely on cutting more forests which will certainly cause damage to the local ecosystem.”

Prior to Taliban occupation of Tirah, there were no government schools, no health centres and no roads in most parts of Tirah valley. Bagh-Maidan could only be approached on foot from Arhanga Kandaw, Orakzai Agency, Haider Kandaw in Kurram Agency and Mai Darra from Bara side in Khyber Agency itself.

Security forces constructed a jeep track from Arhanga Kandaw up to Bagh-Maidan after they evicted Taliban from the region. Local residents welcomed the construction of road but demanded compensation of their cultivable lands consumed by the road and hundreds of precious trees cut down by the forces during road construction.

Ali Akbar, a resident of Shalobar said that rapid development of the valley was one of their basic demands. “More schools, health centres and road infrastructure will encourage Tirah residents to flock back to their area as they are now reluctant to come back to their damaged houses, barren lands and scare income generating opportunities,” he said.

He said prior to Taliban onslaught, they had no electricity in their homes. “Most of the IDPs got used to electricity during their stay in Peshawar, Kohat, Hangu and other cities and it has now become a necessity in their lives,” he said and demanding that their houses be provided with electricity.

Ali Akbar 11-year-old son Bilal too was desirous of electricity at his home and construction of many government run schools in his area. Bilal had to abandon his schooling after his parents were forced to leave Tirah in March. “I want to restart by studies, play cricket with my class fellows and a hide and seek in our corn fields once we go back to Tirah,” he said with glamour of hope in his eyes.

These sentiments of most residents of Tirah apart, the government on its part is over occupied and concerned about the establishment of official writ and restoring lasting peace in the region which is on border with Afghanistan.

Official persuasions regarding the formation of ‘village defence committees’ have so far failed to make the Bar Qambarkhel and Malikdinkhel tribesmen to agree to such official demand.

The Bar Qambarkhel tribe was clearly divided in two camps with one on favor of constituting such committees in lieu of official largesse while the other insisting on going by their own customs and traditions.

“We paid a heavy price by aligning ourselves with pro-government armed Ansaarul Islam and will not become party to any further bloodshed of innocent people of Tirah in future,” said a Bar Qambarkhel elder who requested anonymity.

He said that we will form our own Qaumi Sareshtha (peace committee) which will take care of peace in the area while remaining neutral. “Qaumi Sareshtha is a time-tested and traditional Afridi institution of resolving local issues and penalising violators of the code of conduct set by the Qaumi Sareshtha,” he added.

Security forces and the political administration on its part is wary of a return or reprisal by the Taliban or other militant groups like Lashkar-i-Islam and thus they are taking extreme care in allowing the returning IDPs to their respective localities. Officials said that they wanted permanent peace in Tirah valley and were thus cross-examining the identity of each and every returning IDP.

Khalid Ilyas, an official of Fata Secretariat, said that an amount of Rs500 million had been allocated to provide better facilities to the people of Tirah in coming years. “The amount will be spent on education, health and communication,” he said during a briefing on future government plans about Tirah IDPs.