Threatened, besieged Buddha refuses to leave Gandhara

Peshawar Museum is the book that contains Buddha’s life story: a dog-eared book, no doubt, but one that is a treasure trove.

BRIGHT ideas rarely travel as far as the boundary lines of the North-western Frontier Province. Nevertheless, whenever an idea did venture into this land, it left indelible imprints on the few places of note that it came into contact with. One such place in the otherwise dreary landscape of Peshawar is the tall redbrick building of the Peshawar Museum.

A few years back someone wisely thought to light up the Gothic-styled building with yellow fluorescent bulbs. The old building, suddenly aglow in yellow floodlights, presented such a wonderful spectacle that it was appreciated even by the 99.99 per cent of the local folks who had never cared to step inside the building, even if merely out of their otherwise pervert sense of curiosity.

Before the conception of the idea and its seeing the light of the day, the darkness of the night would only add to the abject neglect of the building. Dark cloudy evenings would further amplify the gloom written large on the tall walls when it would look as if the building was mourning the loss of its priceless artifacts to the vicissitudes of times.

The lights have once again been put out and the doors of the museum now mostly remain closed even to that extremely thin line of visitors.

The closure of the museum’s doors is owing to the dramatic change for the worst in the law and order situation. ‘History, heritage and culture are now taboos’, iconoclastic decrees say so. But long before that happened, the scene in the Peshawar museum had never been all that promising, if not utterly dismal.

Whereas such wickedness shown to places of lesser importance could have been tolerated to some extent, it looks totally unacceptable in the case of the erstwhile centre of Gandhara civilisation. What is so inexcusably wrong with the decayed set-up of the museum was witnessed during a chance visit when the grade three students of an English medium school were on a visit.

‘Ma’am where is the curator,’ a visibly shaken precocious boy asked his teacher when he saw a shabbily dressed guard following them in various sections of the museum. ‘Ma’am why is it so dark here, I can’t quite figure out who that man is,’ another pupil remarked while pointing out at the dust-covered statue of Buddha. When yet another poorly dressed man went over to distribute brochures among the children, they all excitedly asked if that fellow indeed was the curator. The young students looked quite disappointed when they sauntered into the sections exhibiting the so-called ethnology of the land as they probably expected a lively ambience with at least a projector for the guidance of the young ones.

Peshawar museum should not have been just another run of the mill government factory. Frontier is the custodian of some of the rare relics of the Gandhara art displayed in the Peshawar Museum apart from those which are believed to have been illegally transported or outrightly stolen by some of the invaders and other unscrupulous elements.

Siddharth Gautama, famously called Buddha (the enlightened or awakened one), was born a prince in the fifth or sixth century BC (circa) at Lumbini, formerly in India and now a border town in Nepal. He could not be expected to have visited Gandhara (the present day Frontier) but his followers made Gandhara their cherished place of meditation somewhere from the second century AD onward.

The archaeological relics showing the devotees’ love of Buddha and found over a wide area in Mardan, Takht Bhai, Swabi, Swat, Charsadda and Peshawar date back to the same period.

Peshawar Museum is the book that contains Buddha’s life story: a dog-eared book, no doubt, but one that is a treasure trove. Buddha in his mother’s womb, his mother undergoing birth pangs, Buddha born and growing up as a prince, Buddha’s encounter with sickness, old age and death, his flight from home, his begging bowl and meditation under the bhodi tree (pipal or ficus religiosa), Buddha’s struggle to attain ‘Nirvana’ and his death and cremation, there is nothing amiss in the magnum opus as it is available in the Peshawar Museum.

And yet the unabated tragedy is such that the epic of the enlightened one goes largely ignored, as it lies hidden in the dungeon-like darkness of the museum.

But the level of apathy is not so widespread. Just before the recent spate of violence, one would see Japanese and Koreans cycling all the way from Islamabad in the scorching heat of May and June to the site of Buddhist monastery perched on a mound in Takht Bhai. Such devotion and peace of mind and body by the Buddha’s disciples is indeed awesome.

Thankfully, there are quite a few admirers of the glorious Buddhist period in our near about as well. One recently barged into a photographer’s shop in the Peshawar cantonment where two fellows were found discussing how breathtaking the monastery looked on a full-moon-night.

A senior civil servant, Yousaf Afridi, was recently heard saying,’ Thank God Bamiyan did not happen to us or we wouldn’t have been able to hide the shame.’ That was a sad allusion to and a reminder of the destruction of 53-meter tall Buddha’s statue in Bamiyan by the Taliban government in May 2001.Since then many Bamiyans on little scales have already happened on our own land. Swat is the most affected area, though the Swat Museum is said to be relatively safe. Buddha’s foes, howsoever strong they might be, do not however, see that Buddha’s resilience and message of peace is far stronger than their armoury and violence. Buddha simply cannot be evicted from Frontier, as new sites and archaeological discoveries keep popping up here, there and everywhere in this area.

The present NWFP government is undertaking many projects in Mardan. A university is said to be included in the list. The government must model the university in Mardan on the pattern of the grand monastery in Takht Bhai. That would make the august institution a splendid piece of architecture thus adding grandeur to the lackluster architecture of the province. But more than anything else, the monastery-shaped university would be the best message of peace to convey to the world.

Rain and Chaos - Photos from Pakistan

The heavy rain and gusty winds wrought havoc on some of the major cities infrastructure last night. Over 150 people were injured and at least 28 were dead. Most of the victims were women and children living in shanties. Here is a glipmse of some of the worst hit areas of the country.

Domestic violence

A monitoring exercise conducted by the law firm AGHS shows that from April to June this year, 122 cases of women being burnt were reported in Lahore. Of them, 21 women had acid burns while the rest were injured by direct exposure to flames. Forty victims died. Disturbingly, the figures have doubled as compared to the first quarter of the year. These cases constitute merely the tip of the frightening iceberg of violence against Pakistan’s women. The figures reported above apply to Lahore but are unlikely to be lower in other parts of the country. Indeed, one wonders how many cases go unreported. The forms of coercion range from emotional and economic abuse to gross violations of constitutional and human rights, including rape, burning and being handed over as settlement in disputes. Last year, at least two women were believed to have been buried alive in Balochistan. That a sitting parliamentarian defended the act as a ‘tribal custom’ reflects just how endemic violence against women has become in the country. It is important to note that much of the violence against women, particularly in the domestic sphere, goes unreported. Legislation in this regard, meanwhile, has been indefensibly slow. Work on formulating a bill at the federal level against domestic violence was first initiated in December 2006. Two private members’ bills were combined and approved by the National Assembly’s standing committee on women’s development in April 2007. The assembly’s term lapsed before the bill could be passed, however. In March this year, the National Assembly’s standing committee on women’s development unanimously approved the Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill 2008. But little further progress has been reported so far.
That violence against women continues to rise is perhaps symptomatic of the steady brutalisation that Pakistani society has suffered over the past many decades. It is imperative that effective legislation be devised to not only protect women against abuse, both domestic and otherwise, but also bring the persecutors to book. Treating violence against women, including domestic abuse, as a crime will give protection to victims in meaningful terms.

Pakistan: Displaced women and children increasingly vulnerable, warns ACT

Displaced women and young girls are facing increasingly severe hardships in the Mardan and Swabi areas of Pakistan, as they have explained to members of ACT International.
"We are from cold areas and only have warm clothes with us. Now the temperature here is extremely hot and we are looking for suitable clothes," says Naz Bibi, a displaced woman in the Mardan area. "Pregnant women are sleeping on the floor and need mattresses."
As ACT members deliver assistance and continue to assess the needs of the 2.5 million displaced persons, staff are observing a significant lack of access to cooked food, hygiene facilities and health services for displaced women.
"Humanitarian assistance is not just about providing the material aid that people need," says ACT International director, John Nduna. "It is also about working to change the circumstances that block access to basic services -- particularly for the vulnerable and marginalised."
Women are having difficulty accessing assistance at male-dominated locations inside and outside the camps. More and more women, with their children, are arriving in the Swabi area unaccompanied by their husbands, who are staying behind in the conflict area to take care of property and crops. Without their husbands, many women face further difficulties accessing basic services.
Distribution points for cooked food in the camps are largely dominated by men and cultural barriers are preventing women from accessing the food for themselves and their children.
"In the camps, the cooked food that is available is not appropriate for young children under the age of two," says James John from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). "And parents have nothing to offer to their children." Furthermore, CWS field staff have observed in one area that close to 90 percent of tents for displaced people do not have gas stoves for cooking meals.
The problem of insufficient latrines is compounded for women and girls because lack of privacy and separation from mens' latrines prevents their use. CWS reports that one latrine is serving as many as 35 people.
"One of the most critical issues is the lack of health facilities for women, particularly with the lack of female health staff," says Saleem Dominic from Church World Service (CWS), after returning from the field over the weekend. NCA is giving particular attention pregnant women's needs with full checkups, referral services and care through female medical doctors. In addition, some 15 hygiene sessions have been carried out through female and male social organisers in the Yar Hussain Camp. As of the end of May, mobile health units deployed by CWS had treated 350 people, mostly for diarrhea, skin diseases and respiratory tract infections.
In total, ACT members have mobilised over US $3 million for programmes under a coordinated appeal, but much more is needed as they scale up their responses to meet the growing needs.
Mansoor Raza with CWS notes that ACT members in Pakistan share a growing concern for how long the current situation is tenable for the millions of displaced. Host communities -- where the vast majority of affected people are staying -- face major pressure on their shrinking resources.
Displaced women, men and children directly voiced their concerns and needs to humanitarian agencies and local media at a recent event entitled "Learning from the voices of the IDPs". The event, organised by CWS with their local partners in Islamabad, was broadcast on live radio.
"People are expressing their anger in contrast to the 2005 earthquake because this situation is a manmade disaster," adds Mr Raza. "There is a real level of uncertainty in the population. They want to go back, but they need assurance that it will be safe to do so."

Christian minority women face unknown world in Pakistan

Minority girl from Sindh Province, Pakistan. Image: Alysha
During the recent days of battle in the northwest region of the Swat Valley, minority groups are leaving as quickly as possible. Although the majority of religious minorities in the Swat Valley are ethnic Pushtuns, with Sunni religious beliefs, Christian minority women and their families are also part of the fleeing force of refugees.
As violence continues between 4,000 Taliban splinter groups and Islamabad soldiers in the conflict of war, Christian minority refugees, global rescue agencies and Pakistan’s own army leaders nervously wait to see who, in the end, will end up controlling the region. Some Christian women and their families will be forced to stay behind as they have been unable to leave due to the expense of travel. Those who join the 100 degree Fahrenheit refugee camps also face problems with the sharing in handouts of food, an activity that is usually segregated among Sikhs, Hindus and Christians.
“Christian, Hindu and Sikh families have been forced to flee because the Taliban imposed on them Jizia, a tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule,” said Catholic Archbishop, Lawrence John Saldanha, in a letter released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “Now minority communities in the province are forced to endure unemployment, intimidation and migration,” continued the Archbishop’s message.
90% of Pakistani Christians live in Punjab with 50% living in rural villages. “Less than 2% of Pakistanis are Christians,” says a 2008 CNS – Catholic News Service report, although this number has been more recently set by United Nations agencies at a larger 4%. Half of Pakistan’s Christian minority population is Catholic, the other half Protestant.
Pakistan’s religious minorities
Minority religions and sectarian groups in Pakistan come from a vast collection of religious diversity which includes Christians, Buddhists, Ahmadis, Zikris, Hindus, Kalasha, Parsis, Sikhs and Shia Muslim sects, including Ismailis and Bohras. Ethnic regional groups come from 5 different communities, including the Baloch, Huhajir, Punjabis, Pushtuns and Sindhis.
Although 25% of religious minority women are not considered disadvantaged, Christian minority women who live on the bottom of society face many untold limitations. A policy of “living invisibly” with family members is often the only answer for protection for many minority Christian families who suffer under the great specter of poverty in Pakistan.
The most recent Pakistan 1998 census shows minority totals in the country to number somewhere between 11 to 13 million. Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus claim to have a population of 4 million each.
Marginalization of Christian minority women
Most of the families of Christian minority women in Punjab came, at the turn of the 20th century, from families that were originally from India. They came from dalit Hindu families who moved to what would later become the Pakistan region in 1947. Their legacy of isolation and separation from Indian society is ongoing. As dalits they were part of the lowest “untouchable” caste in India. This has been a nemesis that has followed them, even after they converted from Hinduism to Christianity. Basic women’s rights and human rights are often out of reach for these women who daily experience conditions of extreme poverty.
Dalit Christian women who have been severely marginalized often suffer from a shortage of even the simplest basic needs. Lack of health care is common. Slum conditions can also be found where families are forced to live on the streets or to live together in crowded poorly constructed shelters, amid garbage, toxic chemicals and refuse. Their structures often have no electricity, heat or clean water.
Because of these conditions, many dalit Christian women fall into lifetime careers as sewer cleaners, domestic servants or brick kiln workers. Payments for these positions are painfully low, or at times non-existent. Some employers give payment loans ahead to trap minority women, preventing them from ever paying the loans back as they continue to work for free on wheels of never ending debt bondage.
University educated Christian minority women, on the other hand, have quite an opposite experience. Because they are usually supported by family or a husband with money they fare much better among Pakistani society. These women usually have comfortable standards of living, a home their family owns and personal time for leisure activities. They also have much greater freedom with contacts and life opportunities.
The act of clustering poor dalit Christian minority women and families on church owned land or “colonies” has contributed to a much deeper degree of cultural segregation. While isolation and clustering is meant to provide safety, at times it has created more danger for families, as Islamic extremist groups identify Christian community locations to specifically plan their attacks.

A road connecting a Mosque and a Church, ages 9-12 years. Funkor Child Art Center contest, Islamabad 2005
A survey of Christian minority women in society
When a 2006 University of Birmingham, UK study was conducted among a wide span of Christian minority women in Pakistan, all women did mention that they had experienced what they called Muslim “name calling.” One derogatory name which is used commonly in Pakistan is “sweeper” which refers to the “worst of all” – a dalit Christian.
Both educated and uneducated Christian women admitted that they had been asked numerous times by others if they would convert to Islam. Some also experienced reverse discrimination when they befriended someone Muslim, as some of their Christian friends criticized them. One student said that her marks at school were lowered when her teacher realized she was Christian, but she also added her experience was, “not that difficult.”
Those who come from much greater disadvantaged backgrounds, on the other hand, shared much more serious grievances.
Women from disadvantaged backgrounds described how legal and police protection systems in Pakistan had failed minorities. For a few, this included their own experience or someone they knew who had experienced rape, assault or torture as Police forces did little to nothing to help them. In contrast, one woman who had police fail to protect her and her family, admitted enthusiastically that the Muslim owner of the factory where she worked “very happily” gave her a position of “influence” at her workplace.
“The general attitude in Pakistan is that if you are rich you are respectable and if you are poor you are not,” said another woman interviewed. Consensus in attitudes among all the women pointed to feelings that the less educated and “poorer” Muslims were, the more like they were to act from a “habit of discrimination.”
Literacy challenges for women in Pakistan’s Christian minority
As the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) gathered data on education for women in Pakistan (with the help of 900 civil and rights groups), in 2007, their shadow report revealed, “Pakistan has an extremely low female literacy rate with higher drop-out rates among girls before completing primary education. The social norms and practices prefer boys over girls for better education…”
Statistics show that education for the poorest ethnic and religious minority women has constantly been placed at the very bottom of Pakistan’s educational system goals.
With such little opportunity for public education in rural areas, the best chance for poor Christian minority girls to receive literacy training is for them to attend a Christian parochial school. Even this is often very difficult as Islamic Madrasas schools are moving to close all existing programs for minority girls education across Pakistan.
“We are at the beginning of a great storm that is about to sweep the country,” said Ibn Abduh Rehman, who directs the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent organization. “It’s red alert for Pakistan.”
“The mindset wants to stop music, girls schools and festivals,” said Salman Abid, a social researcher in southern Punjab. Because of the rapid expansion of Madrasas schools in northern Pakistan, vandalism and burning of Christian schools and buildings has been increasing since 2002.
Attacks in the Muree region on a Christian school and violence against a chapel in Taxila Hospital have both been attributed to small terrorist groups like the (LJ) Lashkar i Jhangvi, a small Sunni splinter group numbering approx 100 members.

Christian girl ready for confirmation Lahore, Pakistan. Image: Nicholas
Current dangers facing Christian minority women and girls
Under-reported cases of rape against Christian women have occurred. In 2000, the rape of seven Christian women on a bus to Lahore was viewed by the larger Pakistani (Muslim) public as a “deplorable act.” In August 2007, Christian Bishop Arif Khan and his wife were murdered in Islamabad. That same month seven churches and five Christian settlements received threatening letters.
The intimidation of abduction, rape or violence of women and girls from minority religious families adds greatly to their vulnerability. Any legal recourse with police or courts, in working Pakistani law in their favor, is often very limited.
“In the weeks after the Islamabad (March 17, 2002) attack (on the Protestant International Church), I talked to many Pakistani Christians—Catholics, Protestants and Anglicans—in private homes and at dinners and church socials. Several discerned what they described as a larger pattern of violence directed not only at Christians, but at other religious minorities throughout the country,” said David Penault, associate professor at Santa Clara University, California, US.
There have been a number of reported cases of forced marriages of girls from religious minority communities who are under the age of 15. After separation from their family, abductions are framed with the pretext that their conversion to Islam was the reason for their kidnapping. In some cases, there may be a possibility that these are unidentified sex-trafficking kidnappings, but no study to date has been done to confirm this belief yet.
The list of abuse against poor Christian minority women and girls is long.
“Law enforcement personnel abused religious minorities in custody,” said the 2008 International Religious Freedom Report by the US Department of State. “Security forces and other government agencies did not adequately prevent or address societal abuse against minorities,” continued the report. “Discriminatory legislation and the Government’s failure to take action against societal forces hostile to those who practice a different religious belief fostered religious intolerance, acts of violence, and intimidation against religious minorities.”
Legislative tightening, Blasphemy Laws and Hadood Ordinances
In a reversal of restrictions under laws covering accusations by a husband against his wife in adultery, the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, had the intention to free 2,500 women from Pakistan jails in 2006. Unfortunately, this was not completed. Following this improvement, a more conservative interpretation of the law, through Shar’ia based legislation, was given more emphasis, causing greater restrictions in the courts.
As legal doors closed again more tightly, Christian women suffering from extreme poverty were left dangling in a forgotten field of legal ambiguity, no protection and “non-personhood.”
Even with the measured 2006 attempt to ease the 1979 Hadood Ordinances, which now allow women to report domestic violence and rape with one instead of the previously required three male witnesses, women still do not feel safe stepping forward to press their case. Blasphemy laws, that sanction anyone criticizing Islam also inflicts intimidation under the sentence of death by stoning. Stoning as a sentence in Pakistan’s courts has been used as punitive measures in quarrels against neighbors and against religious minorities.
For protection, minority women and their families, whether poor or middle class, often try to hide or mask their religious beliefs for safety at work and in public.
“Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are so vaguely formulated that they encourage, and in fact invite, the persecution of religious minorities or non-conforming members of [the] Muslim majority,” said human rights advocates, Amnesty International.
Under reported cases of rape and torture of religious minority women and girls presents an ever present human rights crisis. Police corruption, along with abysmal Pakistani prison and jail conditions, creates an atmosphere of intimidation and non-accountability.
“Religious minorities need more than just fair treatment under the law, they also require visible cooperation from the police and authorities, to prevent mob justice taking over,” said Settlement Director, Nasir Saeed of (CLAAS) Center for Legal Aid Assistance, which has an office in Lahore and London.
In Oct 2007, Dr. Ms. Asma Jahangir, the now UN Special Rapporteur for UN Commission on Human Rights said, “The NWFP (North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan) presents a disturbing picture of religious militancy that is increasingly manifesting itself in vigilante actions against the population and creating widespread fear… The government has continuously refused to heed complaints and warnings from both the public and civil society organizations and has adopted a policy of appeasement of militants.”
“The government has chosen to look the other way when the militants have blown up girls’ schools and video shops, threatened teachers, students, doctors, nurses, NGO workers and barbers,” added Jahangir.

Rains hit Karachi

A man holds his child while standing outside his flooded home in Karachi

A total of 28 deaths soured Karachi’s initial outburst of joy over the first downpour of the season on Saturday. Over 150 people were injured. The heavy rain and gusty winds wrought havoc on the city’s infrastructure. Most of the victims were women and children living in shanties.

To make matters worse, a massive power breakdown jolted Karachiites when the KESC lost its link with Jamshoro late in the night. Major roads, intersections and roundabouts were submerged under knee-deep water, causing traffic jams.

Heavy showers snapped at least 68 live electricity cables in the city, affecting nine grid stations and nearly 300 electricity distribution feeders in different localities, disrupting power supply to a vast area of the metropolis.

Following are some of the glimpses of the worst hits areas;

HRCP hits out at penalty to curtail SMS, email

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the government’s move to use state power to prosecute certain kind of messaging through cellular phone networks and content on the websites.

The HRCP calls upon the government to withdraw such measures and desist from introducing any law to the effect.

‘In recent days, the federal government representatives have expressed the intention to introduce a law to prosecute people who indulge in certain kind of messaging (SMS) through cellular phone networks,' the HRCP said in a statement issued on Friday.

‘The government has announced that the messages containing any content against the state or immoral material would be punishable under the law. The HRCP views the proposed measures with concern and as an intrusion into personal liberties of citizens. The government seems to be embarrassed by criticism of certain government officials and policies and actions in the messaging of the people on cell phones and blogs on websites and intends to muzzle the people’s voice by curtailing their freedom of expression.’

The commission said this is not the way to persuade people to respect a government which does not earn this status by its deeds. It said the recent modification in the government’s stance that the law would be directed against those who speak against the state and not against those who only attack the government is meaningless as the government here has often been treated as the state.

The HRCP demanded that the government stay away from enforcing any such legislation.

Punishment for indecent SMS and emails

The govt announced that sending indecent, provocative and ill-motivated stories and text messages through e-mails and mobile telephone SMS was an offence under the CCA and its violators could be sent behind bars for 14 years

The government announced on Sunday that sending indecent, provocative and ill-motivated stories and text messages through e-mails and mobile telephone Short Messaging Service (SMS) was an offence under the Cyber Crime Act (CCA) and its violators could be sent behind bars for 14 years.

An official announcement by the interior ministry said that the government was launching a campaign against circulation of what it called ill-motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against civilian leadership and security forces.

The announcement does not elaborate what is meant by ill-motivated e-messages, but it is believed that the ‘civilian leadership’ meant President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and other politicians.

A senior official of the ministry said: ‘Sending indecent message is a crime under the Cyber Crime Act and liable to punishment.’

He said that some elements had been trying to malign the political leadership and security forces engaged in a military operation in Malakand and some areas in FATA.

The government has tasked the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Cell to block or trace such emails and mobile telephones’ SMS.

Under the Cyber Crime Act, violators could be jailed for 14 years, besides confiscation of their property. Similarly, any Pakistani living abroad and violating provisions of the act may be charged and will be liable to deportation to Pakistan.

Under the campaign, all Internet Service Providers would be checked physically by the FIA on a daily basis.

The directive said the campaign would also target proscribed organisations which had been using internet for malicious propaganda against security forces.

The Director General of FIA, Mr Tariq Khosa, has been instructed to monitor and check stories and messages and take necessary action under the CCA.

An FIA official said that strict action would be taken against all culprits in the next few days and the agency had already done a lot of work in this regard.

‘Interpol/Lyon has also been requested to identify those email addresses and websites registered abroad which are being used for such stories,’ the official said.

Journey back home begins

People displaced by fighting in Swat began returning to their homes on Monday under a government repatriation programme.

About 195 families left the Jalozai camp by buses escorted by police. NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti went to Charsadda where he saw off 26 displaced families.

The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) had made arrangements for over 2,000 families to leave the camp on Monday, but a large number of them did not leave.

They cited security concerns and complained about non-payment of Rs25,000 grant promised by the government for each family. About 10,000 displaced families from Swat have been living in the Jalozai camp for about two months.

ERU spokesman Adnan Khan said that the government would not force anyone to leave camps.

The conflict in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts forced more than two million people to flee their homes and move to relief camps.

The government has announced that the IDPs would be going back in phases. ‘It is definitely a joyful day for us. But we are worried about reports of continued presence and movement of the Taliban in our area,’ said Hassan Khan of Barikot.

Several other people also said that security continued to be their main concern and it was difficult to believe that militancy had been eliminated from their areas.

Omar Zareen, who belongs to Tahna, said the number of returning IDPs would have been much higher had their representatives and influential people of their areas accompanied them.

‘The absence of elders gives an impression that the situation is still not under control,’ he said.

Razia Bibi said: ‘My family waited for this day when we would be able to leave this dusty camp. I need nothing, I just want to go back to Swat.’

Each returning family was given a food package – 80kgs of flour, 8kgs of pulses, 5 litres of cooking oil, 1kg of salt, 1kg of high-energy biscuits, 4kgs of sugar and 300 grams of tea – by the World Food Programme.

Agencies add: ‘Everybody is so happy. They are crying tears of joy,’ Sakhawat Shah, a 25-year-old English student, told a reporter by telephone after reaching Landakai.

'My room was destroyed in the shelling. My computer and books were also damaged but I’m not worried because if I’m alive I can buy more books.’

The government says it has worked hard to restore electricity and running water in main towns since the fighting but analysts warn that much needs to be done to sustain the returnees.

‘They will start living a normal life if the environment is secure and their fundamental needs are addressed. Secure environment means army, police and civil administration,’ said independent analysts.

Shamsher Ali, a 55-year-old shopkeeper, said he was worried because previous military operations had failed to crush the Taliban.

‘The army promised us twice before that they cleared the area but then Taliban came again and again to Swat. Perhaps this time the Taliban will come again to Swat,’ he said.

‘Thank God we’re going back,’ said farmer Qaiser Khan.

IDPs’ return starts today

Spending more than two months in camps after the commencement of the military operation in Malakand Division, over two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) are set to return home from today (Monday).

The convoys of the IDPs would be streaming in the beautiful valley amid tight security arrangements, backed by military gunship helicopters. The security is aimed at avoiding any untoward incident during the IDPs’ return.

The Emergency Response Unit (ERU), a body formed to deal the issue of the IDPs, said that about 5,760 families would be repatriated to their homes in the first phase starting from today (Monday). A spokesman for the ERU, Adnan Khan, told local newspapers that 720 buses and 52 trucks would carry the displaced families to Landakay, Barikot, Guratai and Kota areas of the troubled Swat Valley.

According to the plan, the IDPs would be sent back in four phases. The IDPs living in camps, schools, private houses and other provinces would be sent back in the first, second, third and fourth phases, respectively.

As many as 2,433 IDP families from Jalozai and 570 from Familio camps in Nowshera district would set out for Swat at 7:00 am, while 155 families from Salim Sugar Mills and Palosa camps in Charsadda would start off their journey to Swat in buses and trucks. The first phase would be completed in two days. The ERU said that the host families belonging to Barikot, Kota, Landakay and Guratai could also go back in their private vehicles after 1:00 pm.

According to the ERU, the return plan for the in-camp IDPs has been changed. Arrangements have been made for the repatriation of those in-camp IDPs from Buner who might have stayed back for one reason or another and wished to return voluntarily, the ERU said.

During the repatriation of the IDPs to Swat, extraordinary security measures would be put in place. The ERU said the security officials would be deployed throughout the way and military gunship helicopters would oversee the convoys.

Moreover, health unit would also accompany the convoys to meet any emergency. It said the curfew would remain in force on the way and no vehicle would be allowed to stop en route the valley.

One-month foodstuff would be provided to the IDPs prior to their return. The displaced people were seen going back to their homes on foot on the main Mingora-Peshawar road on Sunday. Two women and a child were wounded by security forces when they fired at a car moving into Mingora city in Rahimabad, a town situated some three kilometres south of the city. They were identified as Muddasir, Abida and Zeenat Begum.

It was learnt that curfew passes were being issued to government employees and farmers. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has said repatriation process of the internally displaced persons will start from Monday (today) and 125,000 displaced families have already been paid Rs 25,000 each through the UBL visa cards.

Talking to BBC Radio, the minister said the internally displaced persons’ would return to their hometowns in phases and they would be provided all help in this regard. He said facilities like electricity, Sui gas, telephone and running water have been restored in the affected areas of Swat.

Meanwhile, all the arrangements have been finalised by the government and other social-welfare organisations for the smooth and dignified return of 23,040 internally displaced families of Malakand Division.

The return process of the IDPs is likely to complete within 14 days. The district administration of Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda and Nowshera and relief organisations have made special arrangements to facilitate the IDPs upon their return process.

The Commissioner Mardan Division has imposed a complete ban on all kinds of leaves, including weekly offs, of the government servants in all the district government offices keeping in view the grave emergency situation and beginning of return process of the IDPs.

All the district heads of government departments in Mardan and Swabi, along with their subordinate staff, would remain present on their station of duty and would not leave the station without prior permission of the Commissioner Mardan.

Meanwhile, welcome banners have been installed on roads leading to Swat, Dir and Malakand Agency. The banners with slogans of "Long live Pakistan", "Welcome our displaced brethren" and "Say no to militancy" have been fixed on various corners of the roads.

Scrambling for food - I

In what is emerging as a grave humanitarian crisis, hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians have been trying to get to safety from the Swat valley and have to wait in queues for hours in order to get their daily ration of food.

A group of boys scrambles for bread rations.

Internally displaced men hold their identification cards for a photograph, while standing in line for food rations.

A woman receives wheat in the Jalozai camp.

A girl carries a bowl of water on top of her head.

Scrambling for food - II

Internally displaced girls hold their ration of bread and potato curry at a UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) camp

ood is brought for distribution in a camp

The rice falls around as children rush for food in the Jalozai camp.

An internally displaced family shares a bowl of rice..

Scrambling for food - III

Young women who fled from fighting in the Swat Valley receiv bread in the Jalozai camp on the outskirts of Peshawar

Two boys carry a meal of rice back to their family tents after a food handout at the Jalala refugee camp near Mardan.

Girls carry food back to their tents

A girl rests near shoes of other refugees offering their prayers in the Jalozai camp

Street delicacies

Despite the question of hygiene, some of the better tasting food can be found on the streets as opposed to the fancy - and often prohibitively expensive.

A stack of rotis is piled up at a food joint on a street in Peshawar

A roadside vendor arranges his collection of dates neatly for the customer.

At a local market in Rawalpinidi, a man prepares chai (tea)

A man prepares tikkas while a customer eagerly waits in the background in Islamabad

A man prepares bhuttas (corn) for his customers