analysis: A plea for Bara IDPs —Farhat Taj
analysis: A plea for Bara IDPs —Farhat Taj
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
The IDPs request the government to open vocational centres in the
camp for training in employable skills like carpentry, masonry,
welding, electrical wiring, plumbing, etc. The IDPs also request for
vocational centres for income generation and skill development purposes
for the women IDPs, like embroidery and tailoring
There are about 4,000
registered
and 1,300 unregistered Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Bara,
Khyber Agency, living in Jalozai camp in Nowshera. About 700 more
unregistered IDPs who are staying with relatives or in rented houses
outside Bara also want to come to the camp because either they cannot
afford the high rents or do not wish to become a burden on their
relatives who are also poor. All these people became displaced since
the ongoing military operation started in Bara against the militant
group led by Mangal Bagh.
I had a chance to interact with some
of the IDPs. They inform that several IDPs have had their body parts
amputated and now need immediate help to restart a normal life. One of
them is Misri Khan, a 25-year old young man, who had both his arms
amputated. There are about 30 handicapped IDPs who immediately need
wheelchairs. One of them is Abdul Rehman. He needs a wheelchair, as
both his legs are handicapped. There is also a 13-year-old orphan boy
who had his leg injured in the military operation a month ago. He never
had proper medical care and now a camp doctor informed that his wound
has become cancerous. There is another young man who received a bullet
on his left side four months ago during the military operation. He is
now paralysed and completely on his bed in the Familo part of the
Jalozai camp. He urgently needs medical care and medicine. There are
several IDPs suffering from hepatitis C and various kinds of cancer. In
fact, all of these IDPs need immediate medical help and would welcome
such help from anywhere.
There are many other sick IDPs — men,
women and children. They need medicine that the health units in the
camp do not have. They have been asked by the camp health staff to buy
medicine. The IDPs simply do not have the money to buy the medicines.
There
is no electricity in the camps, where about 100,000 people from
different areas of FATA live. Only a few toilets have electricity. The
harsh summer is approaching and the IDPs request for fans and
electricity in the tents.
Many IDPs have suffered losses to
their properties during the operation. One IDP said he had a grocery
shop in Bara bazaar and this was his only source of income. During the
curfew hours, someone looted his shop. He says he does not know whom
should he hold responsible for his loss — the Taliban linked with the
Mangal Bagh group or the security forces, who imposed a curfew but
could not prevent looting.
Ninety percent of women IDPs do not
have National Identity Cards (NICs). They rejected the notion that the
tribesmen do not allow their women to make NICs. They say many of them
have been poor before the operation and have become even poorer due to
their material losses in the operation in Bara. The transport fares are
high and they cannot afford the expenses of travel from the camp in
Nowshera to the NADRA office in Hayatabad, Peshawar. Therefore, they
request that a mobile NADRA team be sent to the camp to record the
necessary information about the women IDPs and issue them NICs.
Some
of the IDPs are not satisfied with the education imparted to their
children in the camp school. They say their children had a better
standard of education in the local schools in Bara. They are deeply
concerned about the educational future of their children, if the
current insecurity in Bara is prolonged.
The government has
given ATM cards to IDPs from other parts of FATA and
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The same cards have not been given to the Bara
IDPs. They request the government to give them ATM cards at the
earliest.
There are many young men in the camp who aimlessly
roam around the camp every single day. They have no jobs or any
job-related skills. Their parents are afraid that the Taliban may
allure these young men into their ranks. The Taliban offer money,
weapons and power, and temptation generated by the three may be
irresistible for many young men surrounded by unemployment and
hopelessness. Therefore, the IDPs request the government to open
vocational centres in the camp for training in employable skills like
carpentry, masonry, welding, electrical wiring, plumbing, etc. The IDPs
also request for vocational centres for income generation and skill
development purposes for the women IDPs, like embroidery and tailoring.
They request philanthropists and NGOs all over Pakistan to help
with foodstuff, necessary items of daily use and medicine, especially
necessary medical aid to the needy patients and wheelchairs for the
handicapped IDPs. They also request the government for some help from
the Zakat funds.
The IDPs inform that Hamidullah Afridi, the
MNA from Khyber Agency, arranged for 300 bags of wheat flour for the
Bara IDPs. They appreciate the MNA’s effort, but insist that much more
help is needed and they expect their MNA to keep working in this
regard.
The people of Bara in Khyber Agency, like people from
elsewhere in FATA, are paying the price of the state policy of
strategic depth in Afghanistan. They have become homeless and now live
in miserable conditions in the overcrowded Jalozai camp. I would
request the people across Pakistan to do whatever they can, like they
did for the Swat IDPs, to bring some normalcy in the lives of the Bara
IDPs.
The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for
Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of
Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. She can be reached
at bergen34@yahoo.com
In : Farhat Taj
Notes