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Kacha Ghari IDPs refuse to shift to Jalozai Camp

By Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: Internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies living in Kacha Ghari Camps in the city have rejected the NWFP government’s notification regarding shifting to Jalozai IDPs Camp.

“We will prefer to go to Afghanistan as refugees if provincial government forced us to shift to Jalozai IDPs Camp in Nowshera district,” Kacha Ghari’s IDPs Camps Grand Shura members and elders told Daily Times on Sunday. Shura Chief Qari Sirajuddin after meeting with tehsildars from Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies and officials of Afghan Commission said the Shura had rejected both the NWFP government’s notification for their shifting to Jalozai IDPs camp and the political administration’s appeal to return to their hometowns.

NWFP chief minister through a notification had announced that the Kacha Ghari IDPs will shift to Jalozai IDPs camp on November 19. The Shura chief said Bajaur agency IDPs wanted to return to their hometowns but currently the security forces operation in their areas including Charmang Mamond and some parts of Khar tehsils was in full swing. “How we (IDPs) could return to homes when security forces stayed in our houses, hujras, schools, madrassas and mosques, using them as their position points against Taliban in the agency,” Qari Sirajuddin, who is a resident of Mamond tehsil in Bajaur Agency, said.

He said many IDPs living in Kacha Ghari Camp had feuds with the IDPs living in Jalozai Camp and to mix them could create law and order situation for the government. The IDPs living in the Kacha Ghari Camp have also complained that they are faced with numerous problems, which have made their lives miserable. They complained that their tents were worn out, bathrooms messy and schools overcrowded. They said the camp administration had sent several letters to the authorities concerned demanding availability of new tents but all such pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

Malik Bustan, an IDP from Mohmand Agency living in Kacha Ghari Camp, said the provincial government should resolve their problems instead of creating more. “We fear the winter season will make things more complicated for us. Children have already been affected by cold,” said Sher Bahadar, a resident of Charmang. After return of many families to Swat, Mohmand and Bajaur agencies, currently about 2,500 families are residing in the Kacha Ghari IDPs camps.

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