Unregistered IDPs suffering at Jalala

MARDAN: A penny-less family spent a rainy night in the open at Jalala camp near Takhtbhai town as it had sold its tent to buy food a day earlier.

Bakht Shahzada, whose name means ‘the prince of luck’ even though he is a pauper, told ‘The News’ that he was displaced from Khwazakhela, Swat along with his family and initially settled in Kund Park, Nowshera with other internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Recently, he and his family including children moved to Jalala camp where he was denied registration on the grounds that he had come from another camp.

Being unregistered at the Jalala camp meant that he was not entitled to provision of free food and other essentials. “Having no money and being on the verge of starvation, we had no option but to sell the tent in which we had been living,” Bakht Shahzada argued.

The family was staying in the open when rain started on Sunday. The family remained soaked for several hours after some kind-hearted IDPs shifted the family to a tent, made for them temporarily. Due to exposure to rain during the night, the family members were suffering from fever.

Bakht Shahzada is now trying to procure a tent where he could lodge his shelter less family, however, he isn’t the only one at the camp with a tale of misery. There were two women, who wailed and wept while narrating how all the male members in their family were killed when their house was shelled by a military helicopter.

“We were denied permission to depart for our homes in Swat because we were brought to Jalala from other small camps and were yet to be registered,” one of the women complained. It was painful to find out at the Jalala camp that a large number of displaced families, who could not be registered due to one reason or the other, were neither given food nor cash assistance to buy essentials.

Hasan, a student from the US, while visiting the camp, was shocked to see the miseries of the IDPs and hear their tales of sorrow. “I didn’t realise the situation for these IDPs until I came to this camp,” he remarked.

The Jalala camp, which is quite big, has received 421 displaced families from the Yar Hussain camp, 128 from Kund Park, 89 from Shah Mansur, 21 from Sheikh Yasin, 10 from Sheikh Shahzad, 10 from Mazdurabad and 18 families from Aman camp No 1 and 2, Swabi. These families haven’t been registered yet. Until they are registered, they cannot get the compensation amount Rs25,000 or become eligible to return to their homes in Swat.