The internally displaced persons from Bara have demanded of the authorities to end military operation in their area and provide sufficient tents and other basic facilities to them at Jalozai camp.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, IDPs council member Haji Gulfat Khan Afridi said that tribesmen were demanding of the government to stop the operation as innocent people, especially children and women, were suffering owing to it.
He demanded of the government to end the operation, announce a financial package for the affected people and take concrete steps for rehabilitation of IDPs in their respective localities.
“On one hand, innocent children, women and senior citizens are targeted, and on the other the relief goods meant for IDPs are embezzled,” Mr Afridi alleged. He said that officials of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) threatened the IDPs of uprooting their tents at the camp when they asked for relief items.
Accompanied by scores of Bara elders including Tawas Khan, Daulat Khan and Abdul Mehran, Mr Afridi said that they were facing food shortage as World Food Organisation had reduced quantity of flour for each displaced family from 80 kilograms to 40 kilograms for the last one month.
He said that IDPs were facing serious problems in the chilly weather as their tents were worn out. He alleged that the tents meant for IDPs were sold in the market.
The IDPs representative said that people affected by war in Malakand division were provided with relief but the residents of Bara were ignored by the government.
Mr Afridi said that government handed over Rs25,000 to each displaced family from Mohmand and Bajaur agencies at the camp but ignored IDPs from Bara. He said that money was collected from IDPs to repair the faulty power transformer at the camp. The local police, he alleged, harassed IDPs when they entered the limits of Peshawar city. He said that police forced IDPs to pay them bribe. Mr Afridi appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to protect their rights and help them in ending the military operation in their area.
He said that IDPs would be left with no option but to hold protest demonstration and observe hunger strike if their legal rights were not secured.
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