Civilians continue to leave their native towns and villages in South Waziristan of Pakistan’s restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where military operations are going on against Taliban and Al Qaeda, to move to safer places into adjacent Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts of North West Frontier Province.
The latest official data released here yesterday shows that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has reached 336,000 as 46,039 families have so far shifted to the two districts. The IDPs are using different routes including a longer one that runs through Tiarza and Wana areas of South Waziristan and Zhob in Balochistan, to Dera Ismail Khan.
A report by the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN said the influx of the IDPs from the restive tribal agency had witnessed an upsurge during the last one week. It said the largest displacement took place on November 1 when 5,000 families streamed into DI Khan and Tank.
According to the report, the people of the volatile agency continued migration from different areas of SWA. However, an official of the Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority said the government had halted registration temporarily on November 5.
No camps have been established for the South Waziristan IDPs and they are living either with host families or in rented houses. Some tribal people have their own houses in the settled southern districts to spend winter season. Tank serves as the South Waziristan headquarters for winters.
The authorities, it is learnt, have identified sites for camps and will set them up, if the needed.
The uprooted people are half of the total population of the agency. The population of the South Waziristan in 1998 was 429,841, which is estimated to be over 0.6mn now. Out of the total migrated population, 115,800 are living in Tank and 220,200 in Dera Ismail Khan. Some were reported to be living in Zhob a couple of weeks ago but authorities believe they are in transit and heading to Dera Ismail Khan.
The UN report said some 80,050 individuals of 11,080 families had left the area before August this year.
The latest displacement started since October 13 as military was gearing up for an offensive to drive out militants headquartered in South Waziristan. The operation was launched on October 17.
The authorities registered 255,200 individuals of 34,959 families since October 13.
The number of IDPs could go down as the National Database and Registration Authority has been verifying the records of the IDPs to remove double or fake registration. It has verified around 22,600 families so far.
The government and humanitarian organisations have been providing food and non-food items (NFI) to the uprooted people.
The food security cluster, from August to October, has distributed 4,600 metric tonnes of food to 24,089 families in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank. Internews
|
