The internally displaced people (IDPs) of Bara tehsil, Khyber Agency on Wednesday launched a movement to protest against their miseries and sufferings at the Jalozai refugee camp. They demanded the government to restore the registration of all the IDPs of the agency and asked for basic facilities in the camp. They demanded that the government should announce a special package for the families of the military operation’s victims and rebuild their property damaged in the offensive. They asked for similar benefits provided to the IDPs of Malakand Division, Bajour and Mohmand agencies. The refugees announced to hold a three-day hunger strike in front of Peshawar Press Club on November 21 and a daylong protest outside the political agent’s office. The IDPs also threatened to hold protests outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar and the Parliament House in Islamabad.
The movement’s leader Shah Faisal Afridi, who is also the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)-Khyber Agency chapter, said at a press conference that the military offensive had displaced thousands of families and forced them to live elsewhere. He said some IDPs had sought shelter with relatives, few rented houses in Peshawar, while others had no option besides the refugee camp at Jalozai. He said a curfew had been enforced in Bara for the last 27 months, and almost all government and private infrastructure was reduced to rubble. He highlighted the problems at the refugee camp, saying, “There are no basic facilities, including food and medicine, for the IDPs in the camp and they are not even registered.” He invited people to join the struggle for the tribal people’s rights. The movement leaders asked the government to start the registration of the IDPs and facilitate their honourable return to their houses.
