Long Way Home!

The full level of the human tragedy has neither been quantified nor understood due to the inability of the government officials, non-governmental organisations, aid workers and the media to reach out to all those recently displaced

Gradually, the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by Pakistan’s largest displacement of people as a result of the huge military operations against Taliban militants in parts of the NWFP is becoming evident. But the full level of the human tragedy has neither been quantified nor understood due to the inability of the government officials, non-governmental organizations, aid workers and the media to reach out to all those recently displaced from Swat and rest of Malakand division and earlier from Bajaur and Mohmand tribal regions.

In fact, a fresh wave of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from South Waziristan, Orakzai and Kurram tribal agencies is now heading for safer places in southern NWFP and beyond. Jet-fighters and gunship helicopters have been carrying out bombing raids in Orakzai Agency for some time now while long-range artillery guns were used recently to attack suspected militants’ hideouts of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head Baitullah Mahsud in the Mahsud tribal territory of South Waziristan. The new military campaign in these tribal areas has driven a large number of people out of their homes and villages and rendered them shelterless. No figures of these newly displaced persons are presently available as they haven’t been registered, but it would surely add to the number of IDPs in the province.

An unguarded statement by President Asif Ali Zardari in which he talked about starting military action in Waziristan also prompted households in South Waziristan’s Mahsud-inhabited areas to start migrating to other places. Though the President’s office subsequently denied the statement that was part of an interview granted to a British newspaper, the damage was done as so many families were displaced.

As Pakistan Army troops headed for Kurram Agency on May 28 in what appeared to be the start of a new military operation, there were reports of displacement from villages near the Pak-Afghan border and in lower Kurram valley largely inhabited by Sunnis. The troops could try and push the militants out of this area and reopen the Thall-Parachinar road that has been blocked for months and has brought suffering to the blockaded people inhabiting the upper Kurram valley. It was also possible that the deployment of Pakistani soldiers on this side of the Durand Line was part of a new, coordinated effort in partnership with the US-led Nato forces operating in Afghanistan and preparing to launch fresh anti-Taliban operations following the planned summer-time surge of US troops.

Prior to the launch of the military operations in Malakand region, the province was already burdened by almost 600,000 IDPs from Bajaur and Mohmand tribal areas. If that figure is added to the almost 2.4 million newly uprooted persons from Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and rest of Malakand division, the total number of IDPs has already shot up to three million. And it is being predicted that the figure could go up to 3.5 million or even more.

The magnitude of the problem could be better understood by comparing the number of our IDPs with the Afghan refugees who came to Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The number of Afghan refugees at one time peaked to almost five million, which was an estimate as many people weren’t registered. However, the figure of Afghan refugees in Pakistan mostly averaged three million. And one must remember that the Afghans were displaced over a long period of war starting from 1978-79. The Afghan war saw different phases such as withdrawal of Soviet forces in February 1989, the Mujahideen takeover of Afghanistan in April 1992, the Taliban capture of power in September 1996 and the US invasion of the country in 2001. Apart from the endless fighting that has continued for three decades, Afghanistan was also confronted with natural calamities and man-made disasters that destroyed its economy and deeply affected the lives of its people.

In comparison, the Pakistani IDPs were uprooted in the course of a few weeks in the case of those from Malakand division and over a period of some months earlier from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies. Unlike the Afghan refugees who came from every where of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan, the displaced persons in Pakistan belong to one region only. The major reason for the record displacement in Pakistan is the use of heavy weapons by the Pakistani armed forces. Bombing by jet-fighters, including F-16s, and gunship helicopters in densely-populated areas in Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and Upper Dir was bound to frighten communities to abandon their homes to save their lives. Then there was the continuous use of heavy artillery that pounded long-range targets in far-off places. The military commanders must have figured out their best options while carrying out attacks against the militants in congested valleys of Swat, Buner and Dir, but questions must be asked whether such tactics are effective against a mobile force of Taliban guerillas familiar with the terrain. The fact that none of the top Taliban leaders and commanders has been killed until now could be cited as the shortcoming of these tactics and also the inadequacy of the intelligence agencies.

Certain mishaps in which civilians were hit by air strikes or by artillery shells also scared away villagers and forced them to migrate. One Swati family walking on foot that crossed the mountain pass to enter Dir, lost eight members in an attack by a military helicopter and then narrated its ordeal at a press conference in Pakistan.

The IDPs returning to Buner from Mardan and hoping to harvest their ripe wheat crop too got hit by a gunship helicopter and suffered casualties. This halted the repatriation of those IDPs who at any cost wanted to return to Buner, which has almost been cleared of militants by the military, to harvest their wheat crop. The government was keen for the Buner IDPs, and also those from Bajaur, to return home so that the relief camps could take in newly displaced persons in their place. Some IDPs from Bajaur belonging to its Mohmand area were sent back from camps in Peshawar and Nowshera but they could be uprooted again as the situation was still uncertain in their villages due to the recent threat by the government to restart military action there against the militants.

The government was certainly not prepared to receive so many IDPs. The ANP-PPP coalition government in the NWFP was expecting up to half a million IDPs and arrangements for even that small number of displaced people weren’t made when the first wave started reaching Mardan and Swabi, the two neighbouring districts that have accommodated most of the uprooted families. With more than 80 per cent of the IDPs staying outside the 10 new designated camps, the government was lucky that the burden of caring for the displaced people was being shared by generous host families who spared rooms, houses and hujras to accommodate the uprooted families. The 17 total camps, including seven old ones, took in only about 200,000 IDPs while the rest were accommodated by families mostly in Mardan and Swabi in keeping with the great Pakhtun tradition of hospitality. However, it is a moot point that for how long the local families would be able to host the IDPs.

The IDPs too are getting restless. Protests break out often at the relief distribution and registration points and the camps over delays and perceived injustices. Life in the camps lacking electricity due to the high summer temperatures is tough and many families left or are searching for houses where they could shift. Then there is the issue of the older IDPs from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies complaining about discrimination as they believe the displaced people from Malakand division were getting a better deal. The provincial government feels it is responsible for the Malakand region IDPs and not the ones from tribal areas such as Bajaur and Mohmand, which fall in FATA and are administered by the federal government through the Governor of NWFP. Allegations of corruption in distribution of relief goods are already being heard. The threatened ban on IDPs entering Sindh and the three province-wide strikes called by Sindhi nationalist parties and the MQM and Punjab’s reluctance to open camps for the displaced persons in the province have complicated matters, hurt the Pakhtuns and fuelled ethnic sentiment.

If the military operations are prolonged, the leadership of Taliban militants isn’t captured or eliminated and places like Swat aren’t stabilised, the IDPs’ issue will become even more complicated. The retaliatory suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism by the militants could also test the patience of the people and contribute to the concerns of the IDPs.

Most of the IDPs say they are angry with the Taliban for exposing them to sufferings, but they also blame the military and the government for causing their displacement. Still they would now want the army to deliver them peace and a quick return to their homes and villages. If that doesn’t happen, Pakistan would have to cope with a large number of discontented people and the Taliban would not find it difficult to recruit some of them for militant causes.