KOHAT, Aug 30: Representatives of the displaced families of Kurram Agency have demanded of the government to take measures for settling them on permanent basis in Kohat division amidst harsh unwelcoming response from the locals.

Thousands of the families dislodged from the Agency have already occupied vast tracts of lands in Jarma area of Kohat illegally and named various settlements along the Indus Highway as Orakzai Banda and Orakzai Square.

The representative organisation of displaced people known as the Reforms Committee Parachinar alleged that the government did not seem serious in restoring peace in Kurram Agency and their rehabilitation.

These views were expressed at a meeting of the affected persons held under the chairmanship of Haji Sawab Gul, which was attended by hundreds of the elders.

They demanded the government to allot them land here as safe environment was not available to them in Parachinar. They asked the government to construct colonies for them in various parts of the country, where the displaced families had been “forced to live like refugees”.

They demanded that government should sell their costly property in Kurram Agency and provide them the money thus generated so that they could start their lives anew and save the future of their children.

The representatives expressed fear that due to absence of any facility for the mental rehabilitation of their children whose studies had been badly affected due to sectarian war, they might revolt against the system and take arms into their hands to get their just rights and justice.

They said the government despite having all the resources at its disposal had failed in establishing its writ in Kurram Agency and save the lives of innocent people being killed every day for the last three years.

They claimed that so far thousands of people had been killed in the sectarian war and a large number of them had been cut off from the rest of the country which had resulted in negative impact on their lives and acute shortage of food and medicines.

The elders said residents of the Agency had been forced to travel through Afghanistan, claiming that the Kohat Highway was under the control of militants and they could reach Peshawar only by endangering their lives.

On the other hand, the continual influx of the IDPs from the adjoining tribal areas into Kohat and Hangu has raised serious security concerns and created more burden on the already crowded schools, hospitals and roads with the population of the city doubled in recent years.

Once the peaceful Kohat cantonment has been declared as no-go area for the people as the security forces and the police find it difficult to differentiate between the natives and outsiders.

According to an estimate, the population of Kohat which was 700,000 eight years ago had now swelled to 1.4 million. The people displaced from Swat, Malakand, Kurram Agency, Swat and Darra Adam Khel who were allowed to take temporary shelter here have become permanent IDPs who often stage protests and block the highways while demanding provision of electricity and other facilities to their newly populated areas.

The local people are also facing scarcity of potable water because of the increasing number of the IDPs.

According to sources, the IDPs have also brought arms and ammunition along with them, often creating law and order situation. And, the police have to be extra vigilant on daily basis to keep check on them. The police have been accused of harassing the local people in hundreds of settlements which had sprung up along the Indus Highway.

The 240km from Khushalgarh in Kohat up to Sadda in Kurram Agency was literally under the control of the militant groups belonging to Shia and Sunni tribes which had serious implications for the local people, who were leaving Kohat in thousands to Punjab.

The deteriorating security situation has also forced the local businessmen to leave the land of their forefathers in the hope of better future for their children.