PESHAWRA, Dec 12: The internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency held a protest demonstration here on Monday to demand end to military operation in their area and financial assistance for their rehabilitation.

The IDPs residing at Jalozai camp in Nowshera and different residential colonies in Peshawar gathered at Bara Road and staged a sit-in for about two hours outside the office of Khyber Agency political agent.

They also chanted slogans against the killing of people and demanded of the government to stop the military operation at the earliest.

The protesters were holding banners and placards inscribed with different demands about provision of daily use items and release of arrested tribesmen.

Speaking on the occasion, Shah Faisal Afridi said that owing to military operation innocent people had been killed, injured and either arrested or forced to leave their homes without taking their household items with them.

The people of Bara, he said, had been suffering from the last two-and-half years owing to military operations but no one was paying heed to their problems.

The schools, colleges and other departments had been closed in the area since long while there were no health facilities for the ailing tribal people, he added.

Mr Afridi alleged that government had not registered a single displaced person nor provided any shelter to them in the biting cold.

He said that owing to negligence of the government the displaced people launched a movement -- Tehrik-i-Mutasireen Bara -- for resolution to their problems.

He said that they would stage another sit-in in front of Governor's House in the coming days.

A large number of lawyers, traders, students and activists of various political parties of Khyber Agency took part in the protest.

Tribal elders Haji Ikhtiar Badshah Afridi, Haji Bismillah Jan, Suhbat Khan Afridi, Abdul Kareem Mehsud, Ijaz Mohmand, Haji Zarnoor Afridi, Maqbali Khan and Ibrahim Khan also spoke on the occasion.

The protesters vowed to continue their protest against government till their registration as IDPs and an end to the military operation in the agency.

They demanded provision of food, tents and other necessary items.

Later, a group of elders led by Shah Faisal Afridi presented a memorandum about problems of IDPs to the assistant political agent of Khyber Agency.