For Said Ayaz, a trader from Bara, the announcement by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mahtab Akhmad Khan on January 4 regarding reopening of Bara Bazaar was both a source of joy and disappointment. He was more than happy as the bazaar was going to be reopened after its closure for over six years due to militancy and military operations in Bara.

But he was disappointed because more than 80 per cent of the total 11,500 shops in Bara were damaged beyond repair owing to acts of terrorism and fighting between militants and security forces.

Said Ayaz was president of Bara Tajir Ettehad (local traders association) prior to its closure in September 2009. “All the structures need to be razed to ground and then reconstructed as mere repair would not serve our purpose,” he said when asked about his worries after the announcement regarding reopening of the bazaar.

Mr Ayaz along with a number of other traders from Bara had always been demanding reopening of Bara Bazaar when the government announced repatriation plan for over 90,000 displaced families of Bara in March last year.

“We had not in fact anticipated the actual scale of destruction at Bara Bazaar as nobody was allowed to go beyond the security checkposts established at Batta Thal on the north-eastern entry point of the bazaar. That’s why we had been frantically demanding its reopening with the illusive hope of revival of our business as soon as the temporarily displaced persons are rehabilitated to Bara,” said Mr Ayaz, who owned a general store adjacent to Bara tehsil offices.

However, Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan was upbeat about the prospects of reviving tradition business activities in Bara when he spoke to a jirga of tribal elders inside a huge decorated tent erected right in the middle of the bazaar on January 4.

“Bara Bazaar will be the first of its type in the entire Fata to have modern facilities like municipality offices, town centre, bus and taxi stands, Rescue 1122 and fire brigade facilities along with a sprawling family park and warehouses,” he told an applauding audience to which Said Ayaz was also a participant.

Sardar Mahtab said that Rs1 billion had been allocated for developing and constructing all those modern structures and an initial amount of Rs38 million would be spent in the first phase of the bazaar face-lifting and beautification.

But the governor’s pledges had little bearings on Haji Taj Mohammad, another local trader and a former office-bearer of Bara Tajir Ettehad, who believed that rebuilding of the damaged markets was a priority instead of constructing a family park and providing rescue and fire brigade services prior to the start of trading activities in the historic Bara Bazaar.

“The governor should have announced a comprehensive development and rehabilitation package for the local traders and market owners, who incurred huge financial losses due to the destruction caused to their commercial properties during the last six years of insurgency,” he insisted.

Haji Taj Mohammad, who belongs to Shalobar tribe of Bara and had four shops in the bazaar, contended that local traders and market owners were under huge financial debts due to the damage caused to their commercial properties and were not in a position to rebuild or repair their damaged structures on their own.

He said that the government should provide interest-free bank loans to the affected traders and shopkeepers so that they could restart their businesses.

But there were also some optimistic voices from the same trading community with some minority traders expressing their hope that Bara Bazaar would regain its lost glory and they would be able to restart their business.

Talking to Dawn at the entry point of the bazaar after getting clearance from the security forces, Gorvinder Singh, a former wholesale flour dealer in Malik Shopping Plaza, said that the announcement regarding reopening of the bazaar was like ‘a new lease of life’ for him.

“It is extremely difficult to narrate the painful and heart wrenching experiences of the last six dark years during which we lost everything and were forced to flee Bara, our birth place,” the green-eyed and long bearded Singh said.

Govinder Singh along with his family shifted to Peshawar after the start of military operation in September 2009 and later opened a mobile phone shop in Ramdas locality of Peshawar to earn a livelihood for his family.

“Though we lost all our hard-earned capital after we fled Bara but we are now more than optimistic that we will reestablish our businesses and will resettle in our homes,” Mr Singh said, requesting both the local administration and security forces to ensure a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for the business community of Bara.

Savinder Singh, another member of the Sikh community, had to rent a house in Hassan Abdal after fleeing Bara. He is now back in the region to assess the possibilities of restarting his business. He too had a general store in Malik Shopping Plaza. Now he is planning to negotiate the repair and renovation of his damaged shop with market owner.

“Most of the Bara traders are willing to come back and restart their businesses after the official announcement and the government’s plan to provide modern facilities at the Bara market,” he said while waiting in a queue to get clearance from the security forces.

Savinder Singh said that he along with other minority traders had very cordial relations with local businessmen.

He expressed the hope that the same relations would be revived after the local administration allowed them to restart their business in Bara.

Imran Afridi, a central leader of Awami National Party from Qambarkhel tribe of Bara, said that reopening of Bara markets was a longstanding demand of almost all the inhabitants of the area.

He said that the returned families faced a lot of difficulties to go to Peshawar and Jamrud to buy daily use commodities and edibles. “The reopening of Bara Bazaar will not only provide sources of decent income to the local residents but it will also cater to their daily needs and requirements,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2016