PESHAWAR, Oct 12: The prolonged military operation in South Waziristan tribal region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) has affected horticulture and its allied businesses in shambles causing financial lose to farmers and business circles.

"In comparison to the last year, I did only 10 per cent business this time with Wana (headquarters of the South Waziristan agency)," said Momin Khan, a Peshawar-based fresh fruit dealer.

The economic blockade of the Wazir tribesmen for over four months and the military operation launched to force tribesmen to surrender suspected foreign militants and their tribal protectors have left devastating effect on horticulture and scores of families associated with it in the troubled parts of the tribal region.

Officials and market sources said that the horticulture sector happens to be the main thrust of Wana's economy and the non- utilization of apple and watermelon crops had left farmers and fresh fruits dealers in deep financial crisis.

According to market sources, even the businessmen, traders and transporters of the Punjab and NWFP, who have been doing business with Wana, also experienced a difficult time because of economic sanctions imposed on the Wazir tribesmen, settled in the Wana sub-division of the troubled agency.

"I got my huge investment blocked in Wana because of the economic sanctions," said Momin Khan, who heavily relies on fresh fruits from Wana, which involves 45,713 acres of cultivable land including large area under fruit orchards.

He said he could not transport apple and watermelon from Wana because of the sanctions rendering him to suffer huge financial losses. Fresh fruit dealers of Wana, farmers and daily-wage earners in the troubled parts of the sub-division and in settled parts of the NWFP and Punjab were equally hit by the restrictions imposed on the trade and business activities.

Haji Kabul Khan, Peshawar's leading fresh fruit dealer told Dawn that the business with Wana was closed to all accesses this time as compared to the past. He said that the provincial capital's fresh fruit market received trucks loaded with apple from Wana only ten days when the economic blockade was lifted at the start of August, last. "Now the cause is already over and apple and watermelon produced in Wana this year got rotten because of economic blockade," said Kabul Khan.

He said the government's recent decision vis-a-vis lifting economic sanctions would not help to recover the losses as fresh fruit yields already got rotten. However, in comparison to Peshawar, the fresh fruit markets of the lower Punjab experienced major brunt of economic sanctions on Wana, where the apple and watermelon crops remained unutilized.

Wana's apple and watermelon, said the market sources, have large markets in several of the Punjab's cities including Jhang, Kot Addu, Bhakkar, Laya, Muzaffargarh, Chowk Azam, Fatehpur and Multan.

Similarly, tomato grown on a large area in Wana has large markets in Peshawar and several other parts of the country. Momin Khan said that between 150 and 180 trucks carrying fresh fruits, including apple, watermelon, peach, grapes, apricot, from Wana were used to leave every day for different parts of Pakistan mainly in the lower Punjab.

In addition, 30 to 40 trucks of tomato were used to be dispatched to markets in different parts of Punjab and the NWFP. "Peshawar was used to receive 10 to 15 trucks from Wana everyday and much greater number of trucks carrying apple and watermelon were dispatched to Punjab," said Kabul Khan.

Mr Momin said that according to rough estimates business deals involving a total amount of Rs 10 million to Rs 15 million were used to be done everyday in previous years. "But this time we did business with Wana only for 10 days when sanctions were lifted," said Momin Khan.

Market source said that the huge stocks of apple and watermelon perished without being plugged out from their cropping areas because of the sanctions on the Wana subdivision during which there was complete ban on transporting goods from or to the troubled parts, where more than 100 army personnel and unknown number of militants killed during attacks and counter attacks against each other.

The transport sector, the sources said, also suffered heavily. "Truckers charged Rs 50,000 per truck, instead of usual transportation charges of Rs 15,000 per truck in normal days, when the sanctions were lifted for only 10 days," said Bakht Zaman, a transporter. He said that except those 10 days the transporters did not do any business with Wana's fresh fruits market.