Bajuar's IDPs and Govt Response

The recent military operation in Bajaur Agency has forced some 400,000 tribesmen to flee their homes for safer places along with their families.These tribes people are deprived of basic necessities of life, and blame the government for disturbing their lives in the holy month of Ramazan.The government has established camps for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at various places in the NWFP but the arrangements are not sufficient to cater for even half of these migrants. Most of these tribespeople have shifted to Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi and lower Dir districts and are facing numerous problems. This is the largest mass exodus after the devastating earthquake in October 2005.Before the start of Ramazan, the government had asked the IDPs to go back to their villages and declared that there would be no attacks by security forces during the holy month. But it actually did not happen; the increasing strength of militants did not allow the security forces to abandon the operation. Unfortunately, when the IDPs rushed to their homes on government assurances, they had to leave again as the armed forces further intensified their raids. When the migrants came back to seek refuge in their deserted camps, they found nothing as the government had uprooted the temporary camps. There was no government machinery to facilitate the IDPs' stay.Ahmed Said, a resident of Mamoon area in Bajaur Agency, while talking to me said: "The government had assured us that there would be no operation in Ramazan. When we reached back our deserted homes, the bombing and shelling started again. We had no option but to leave again. This time the government camps had been uprooted. Now we are living in the open."Expressing his pent up feelings against the authorities, he blamed the government for not taking a timely decision against the militants. "To retaliate a single shell from any adjoining village, the forces indiscriminately bomb the whole area," he added.People belonging to these areas are faced with multiple problems ranging from food, shelter, security to psychological trauma. Some women and children have managed to take shelter in the verandas of government school buildings but barred from using the rooms. A school teacher at Timargarah told that: "We have allowed them to stay in verandas of schools but during school timings they are asked to stay away. It is not possible for us to accommodate them during day time."Scarcity of food, water and other basic amenities of life has made the lives of these people very miserable. The rich people who left the restive Bajaur Agency have hired houses on rent but the poor are facing a real hard time. In Charsadda there is shortage of safe places and people are compelled to live in congestion. Even a family of twenty is living in one single muddy room.People have apprehensions that security forces are making arbitrary assaults. Wisal Khan of Badano area in Bajaur blamed the government of not exactly targeting the hideouts of militants instead their stray bullets threaten the lives of peaceful tribesmen. "We wonder whether the government is targeting extremists or harmless residents of Bajaur Agency."Rustam of Sadiqabad was of the view that with the given strategy the government would not be able to win the hearts of tribesmen which is very important to wipe out militancy from the troubled tribal region. "How can the government expect from us to guard the porous border when we ourselves are being targeted from two sides -- government and the militants," said Rustam.Some 16,000 people have so far migrated to Kunar province of Afghanistan, adjacent to Bajaur Agency while the militants from Kunar province have shifted to Bajaur Agency.For the government, success in war against terrorism, according to political and military strategists, depends on support of the locals. But the ground realities in the area are indicative of the fact that the gulf between the government and the tribesmen is widening.