PESHAWAR: Tribal elders from North Waziristan Agency on Thursday demanded the federal government to ensure their repatriation to their respective hometowns before census process begins in the region; the local administration should stop demolishing their homes.
Tribal elders of Dapakhel clan led by Malik Ashraf, while addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, said that in June 2014 due to the military offensive in the area around 2,400 families left their homes and migrated to other parts of the country. “We have taken shelter in the makeshift camps for the sake of the country,” he said, adding that they confronted numerous difficulties in those camps.
Flanked by tribal elites, including Muhsin Khan, Haji Habibullah, Qadar Zaman, Haji Iqbal and Mustafa Khan, he said that the federal government had announced to repatriate all the displaced tribal families to their respective hometowns till the end of December 2016, but despite their promises we are still compelled to reside in the refugees’ camps, he added.
He also feared that due to their displacement from their respective hometowns they would lose their identity in the ongoing census process across the country.
The tribal elders also alleged that local political administrations were illegally demolishing their homes in their respective hometowns and constructing their own homes and government offices there. They demanded the government and chief of army staff to take notice of these occupations.
The tribal elders also demanded the federal government to extend them financial packages for the reconstruction of their destroyed homes and other infrastructure, and also reestablish their already destroyed businesses in the region.
They also threatened to chalk out the future line of action against the government if the government failed to resolve their issues within three days.
