Growing number of IDPs

PESHAWAR: Authorities acquired 7,800 kanals of land to expand the Jalozai camp for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to cope with the continuing influx of uprooted families from the troubled tribal agencies.

The existing camp is full to capacity forcing the authorities to suspend registration for the time being. Besides acquiring more land for the expansion of the camp, officials are exploring other avenues to accommodate the displaced people.

In-charge Jalozai IDP camp, Zahir Shah, told The News they had capped registration at the facility due to lack of space. He said 119,000 individuals of 17,000 families from Khyber, Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies had been registered in 15 phases of Jalozai camp. An additional 7,000 families, he added, had been registered as host families. “These families are not willing to stay here due to several reasons,” he said and added they were being provided with relief items.

The camp has 10,900 families from Bajaur, 2,400 from Mohmand and 3,700 from Khyber Agency. Zahir Shah said IDPs from Khyber and Bajaur agencies were still streaming into the camp to take shelter, but they were cramped for space. The military continues operation in parts of Bajaur Agency where warplanes were reported to have pounded suspected positions of militants in Mamond area during the last several days.

People uprooted from Bajaur are also being registered in a camp in Wali Kandao area of Lower Dir district. Another 2,000 displaced families are living in Katcha Garhi camp in Peshawar. The security forces are also engaged in an operation codenamed “Khwakh Ba De Sham” (I will fix you!) in Khyber Agency to clobber fugitive non-Taliban militant commander Mangal Bagh and his supporters.

Military action is also in progress in South Waziristan from where around 59,000 families have been displaced. However, Nadra verified some 36,000 families to have been affected by operation Rah-e-Nijat against the leadership of banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. No camp has been established for the IDPs from Waziristan and they are living with host families or in rented homes.

Camp in-charge Zahir Shah said they had acquired 6,000 kanals of land in Jalozai but most of it was unusable because it is uneven and full of ditches. He said they could make use of only 1,900 kanal of land where tents could be pitched. Work for levelling the area was underway, he added. He said they had obtained 1,800 kanals of land in addition to 6,000 kanals and also received orders from the district coordination officer to billet IDPs in Industrial Estate. It was learnt the authorities would resume registration only after finding out as to how many families could be accommodated in the new portion.

Zahir Shah said the IDPs in Jalozai were being provided with food and non-food relief items and all other facilities. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has been giving tents, quilts, blankets, mats, buckets and jerry cans as non-food items and atta, biscuits, sugar, pulses and ghee as food items. However, he said due to winter cold they needed more blankets to protect the IDPs, particularly elderly persons, from cold.

Six schools have also been established in the camp in which double shift was being run. “Twelve hundred students read in a single shift,” Shah said. Moreover, the Pakistan Army has set up a 50-bedded hospital with different specialist doctors and all other facilities. “The treatment here is free of cost. Patients are admitted to it and kept for several days but serious ones are referred to LRH and Pabbi hospital,” he said. This facility, he claimed, was in addition to six basic health units established at the camp.