Almost all the political parties and their leaders are not showing their commitment to displaced persons from troubled Malakand region as the political leaders are avoiding directly meeting with the affected people for security reasons. This behaviour of the politicians will not help the armed forces in their offensive against militants, which is underway in different parts of Malakand division.
The military operations need to have the backing of the people who have been forced to live as refugees in their own country. "Politicians face no trouble to appear on TV channels. They present different theories about the Swat situation while sitting in front of prominent anchor persons, but they are not up to the task to go in person and meet the people uprooted due to the operations," said Aleem Jan, a Swat resident presently living in Mardan.
Talking to Business Recorder on telephone, he said that more than one million people have left their homes in Buner, Swat and Dir. They are living in different cities in private houses and camps especially set up for the internally displaced persons (IDPs). But the politicians have not enough time to meet these people and listen to their problems.
There is growing sense of deprivation among the IDPs. The political parties have got a good opportunity to revive their lost relations with the people of Malakand division who were literally under the Taliban siege for more than two years.
Apart from a few exceptions, the politicians were the first segment of society that left the people and the areas and preferred to live in their palatial houses in Peshawar and other cities. The attitude of the politicians is deplorable despite they have started sensing that the public attitude has largely swung against the Taliban after the failure of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation to bring about peace in Malakand division. Aleem Jan said that it was understandable that politicians were unable to go to Swat because there were threats to their lives from the Taliban fighters. "Now frightened people have left the dangerous zone. Why do not the political leaders come and meet us?" he questioned.
Thousands of fearful civilians - many on foot or donkey-pulled carts - streamed out of a conflict-ridden Pakistani valley Sunday as authorities briefly lifted a curfew, said a report by Associated Press (AP). Once the curfew was lifted early Sunday, more residents in Swat towns tried to get out any way they could - on motorbikes, animal-pulled carts, rickshaws or simply on foot. A ban on civilian vehicles entering the valley complicated the exodus for those without cars, said the report.
Aleem Jan warned that if the government and the political parties failed to come to the rescue of the people, they would look back at Taliban. The Taliban leaders feel no fear, he said. The army is doing what is required for the national integrity. The political parties are not coming forward to strengthen the army in its offensive against the militants. Like Aleem Jan, there are more than IDPs from the Swat, Buner and Dir who have left behind their homes, ready to harvest crops and vegetables, livestock and other valuable assets. They have left their assets in the hope that they would get better treatment by living in cities like Mardan, Peshawar, Swabi and other cities.
Most of the crops and the livestock are being treated as Mal-e-Ghanimat by the Taliban. The left out halal animals are feeding the militants. They are using our vegetable to feed their fighters, some residents of Swat said.
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