THE NEWS PK
JALALA, Mardan: A human catastrophe is in the offing in NWFP as the military operation intensified in Swat, Buner and Dir districts of NWFP on Friday.
The provincial government, on the other hand, is going to vacate some school and college buildings to house the internally displaced persons (IDPs) as the existing facility at the tented villages is rapidly shrinking with the fresh arrivals from the three districts.
Families arriving in Mardan and Swabi districts from Swat, Dir and Buner on Friday were critical of the government for not informing them in advance about the launching of the operation. “We are stuck up. The Taliban do not allow us to live in peace in our homes. The government can’t provide us help when we have been uprooted. What to be done, we don’t know,” were the most common lines heard from the displaced people.
The bitter feelings among the IDPs arriving at Jalala, area outside Takht Bhai tehsil of Mardan district, were giving the impression that the government would soon lose the support it had won from the people of Swat over the previous two months against the Taliban.
Majority of Swat people in particular, and rest parts of the province in general, were in favour of a serious operation against those challenging writ of the government in Swat, Buner and Dir after the February 15 peace agreement and the violations by the militants.
“After uprooting us from our homes and villages, the government should have provided us shelter and food after arrival here,” said Saleem Khan from Mingora city, who was in search of a tent to house his 13-member family.
He said all his family members traveled around 45 miles on foot before managing to safely get themselves out of Swat, which is becoming a hell for the people since the emergence of the fresh trouble.
Salim Khan said his female family members stayed in the house of a friend for the night, while the male members, including children, passed the night in a mosque. The fresh IDPs said they were running out food and water and there was no electricity. They were no option but to get out of the city, where fear of a fierce showdown between the security forces and the Taliban militants is eminent, they added.
The IDPs said a large number of people had also started coming out of Dir Lower besides the mass exodus from Swat. A gargantuan line of tractor-trolleys, rickshaws, trucks, pick-ups, busses and motorcars was seen overloaded with people coming out from Chakdarra and Swat sides into Mardan.
The villagers in Dargai, Jalala, Takht Bhai were seen distributing cold drinks, biscuits, cooked food, mostly rice, and other food items to the people passing through their respective areas. At the Jalala camp, besides the welfare organisations and the district government, people were seen bringing food and distributing it to the displaced people on their own. However, the distributing items were far less than the requirements of the IDPs.
In mosques during the Friday congregational prayers, prayer leaders and elders asked the Namazis for generous help, both financial and material, for their displaced brothers and sisters. In almost all mosques in Mardan and Swabi districts, Chanda (contributions) were collected by the faithfuls to buy food items, clothes, medicines, etc for the families living in camps.
Most of the prayer leaders, during the Juma sermons, were heard relating the help extended by Ansars in Madina to their Muhajir brothers from Makkah. A school is already vacated to house the IDPs in Sher Garh village of Takht Bhai as the existing settlement at Jalala was already full by the end of the day (Friday).
Official sources said more college and school buildings would be vacated to house the IDPs. Some of the schools are likely to closed for two to three weeks in advance of the summer vacations, due on June 1, to house the refugees.
No comments:
Post a Comment