KHYBER: Zahir Shah, 70, had to partially repair a damaged house in Nangrosa village of upper Bara to provide a shelter to his family of six after being forced to leave his home in Kamarkhel area of Tirah on November 20 when security forces in the region ordered hundreds of families in different parts of the valley to vacate their houses in anticipation of a possible military operation against suspected militants.

He told Dawn on phone that he had to pay Rs8,000 as transportation charges to the owner of a pickup vehicle to shift his family from the troubled Kamarkhel region of Tirah to Nangrosa. He said that he hastily settled down in a damaged mud house to protect his family from harsh winter.

“We were promised free transportation but were not provided at the time of our hasty displacement. We were later refused the transport fare we paid from own pocket,” he said.

He added that the repair of the damaged house, which locals voluntarily provided to him, was an additional financial burden on his family as government failed to provide them with any temporary shelter.

Mr Shah said that bringing firewood and weeds from the nearby hillocks in Kamarkhel on a donkey back and then selling it to residents in his village was the sole source of his income which he lost with the displacement of his family.

PDMA officials say they haven’t received formal request for assistance ahead of possible military operation

Wahid Gul, 40, would also collect firewood from the hills near his home in Bagh-i-Haram area of Tirah but had to hastily abandon his source of livelihood and ‘migrate’ to Dars Jumaat village of Akkakhel in upper Bara with his family of eight on November 18 when residents of the area were asked to vacate their houses as security forces believed some that suspected militants had infiltrated in the area and were involved in attacks on them.

He and his family also settled down in an abandoned mud house, which was badly damaged during the previous military operations. “Initially I repaired just one room in the house and settled there with my family to save ourselves from a severe cold, which has now gripped the entire region,” he said while complaining that they were not provided with any official assistance so far.

Sources in the region told Dawn that so far 324 families of Sipah, Akkakhel, Zakhakhel and Kamarkhel tribes from Sanda Pal, Miandad, Kandaw, Khapur, Ghulam Ali, Dray Naghari, Jarrobi, Bagh-i-Haram and Drowta villages vacated their houses and shifted to comparatively safer places in Tharkhu Kas, Spin Drand, Sookh, Gharrai, Dars Jumaat and Takhtaki areas. Some of these families have also migrated to Bara and taken shelter with friends and relatives.

They said that some of the newly displaced families were residing with their relatives and co-tribesmen and others were accommodated in either tents or old and damaged mud houses in different localities as they were in dire need of a temporary shelter in the cold weather.

Khalil Khan, a spokesperson for the newly displaced families, told this scribe that none of them received any assistance from the district administration and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). He added that a number of displaced children and women were suffering from multiple weather-related diseases and acute shortage of food items.

He said that alongside miserable living conditions in most of the damaged houses and tents, majority of the displaced families were more concerned about their own homes as snowfall was about to begin in most parts of Tirah with no one left behind to look after their recently built or repaired houses.

Mr Khan said that the displaced families also lost a large number of their livestock while some had to walk for long to reach a safe place as there was no road to the areas from where they had to migrate.

The additional deputy commissioner, Nauman Ali Shah, however insisted that district administration provided free transportation to most of the newly-displaced families. He said that they were taking up the case of new IDPs with PDMA for some assistance ‘if possible’.

He said that the district administration was confronted with ‘too many limitations’ due to the current financial crunch.

Officials at PDMA, however, told Dawn that they were yet to receive a formal request for any assistance for newly displaced families of Tirah. “For the time being it is the responsibility of district administration to deal with the new IDPs crises as PDMA is not in a position to extend any prompt financial assistance to them,” they added.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2023