PESHAWAR: The displaced traders of Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency have established a makeshift bazaar at Batathal in the suburbs of Peshawar and demanded of the government to extend them financial support or let them return to their localities.

During a visit to the new bazaar it was observed that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) have set up small cabins and shops along the Sarband-Batathal Road. Dozens of them have also set up wooden structures on the Bara Khwar despite constant threat of floodwater.

At least 200 shops have been set up in the area where most of the daily use items, including fruit and vegetable, are available at reasonable prices compared to the Peshawar city.

On the one hand, this new bazaar has become a source of income for IDPs, on the other, the residents of various localities of Peshawar, including Shaikhan, Batathal, Mera Mashokhel, Shahbkhel, Suleman Khan, Sarband, Sango and Bara Qadeem, feel it easy to buy daily use item at reasonable rates near their homes.

Urge govt to take steps for opening Bara Bazaar

According to local people, in the past the main shopping market for the people of the suburban villages of Peshawar was Bara Bazaar, but its closure had forced them to go to Peshawar city markets.

“This is not a permanent bazaar, but even then our people have the opportunity to get different items easily and also on debt because both the vendors and customers know each other and live in the same area,” said one of the displaced persons living in the area.

Requesting anonymity, several shopkeepers blamed both the Lashkar-i-Islam and law enforcement agencies for the current financial problems being faced by local people.

The law and order situation, they said, had improved to a great extent for the past over one year, but even then the government was reluctant to take steps for rehabilitation of IDPs and opening Bara Bazaar.

“Our people have set up the cabins and shops about two years ago in a state of extreme compulsion as we have no other source of income,” said Shah Faisal Afridi, a leader of Jamaat-i-Islami, on Thursday.

He said that about 5,000 shops and hundreds of warehouses full of different items had been closed for the past five years, causing huge financial loss to the people. Of the shopkeepers, some 20 per cent could bring their belongings in emergency and the rest had left everything behind. He said that besides the owners and shopkeepers at least 200,000 people, including vendors, pushcart owners and workers, had the opportunity to earn their livelihood at Bara Baazar, but now they had no source of income.

The JI leader said that the government had announced a meagre amount of Rs400,000 as compensation for the owners of destroyed houses, which must be enhanced on the basis of losses. He demanded of the government to pay at least Rs2 million to each shopkeeper as compensation.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Fata leader Iqbal Afridi also demanded of the government to compensate the people and take solid steps for their rehabilitation so that they could educate their children and start normal life.

He said that the people of Bara had suffered heavily and it was duty of the federal government to extend full financial support to them.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014