Following the Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa government directives to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) to vacate schools and government buildings in Bannu district, the IDPs were facing another dilemma of shelters as majority of them refused to live in the government camps, officials said.
The internally displaced families of NWA refused to vacate government schools buildings till August 10 as directed by the district administration, which has asked them to shift to camps established for them in Bakakhel area and vacate schools for students, whose summer vacations were just ending. Due to the refusal of IDPs to vacate some 600 school buildings in Bannu, the students of the area are facing serious problems as their classes will not start in time.
These are also centres in which non-governmental organisations are operating to provide direct services, carry out need-based surveys and provide some relief to women and children who are barred from public spaces and the sports complex distribution points.
When contacted, Commissioner Bannu, Mohsin Shah said around 25,000 families are residing in the government schools and it is not possible to provide them alternate building facilities in Bannu. He said the presence of these IDPs families in government schools would affect the education of children and it is direly needed to shift them to the camps. He said about 217 families have been shifted to Bakakhel camp where all facilities of life are available. "The government is planning to establish three new camps along with compounds for the IDPs, where 900 families will be accommodated," he added.
He said the residents of the area have appealed to the government to vacate the schools, as valuable time of their children is being lost. While Dawar and Wazir Tribes of NWA have arranged a grand Jirga in Bannu, urging the government to take appropriate steps for their repatriation, saying that when 80 percent areas of NWA have been cleared of militants; it is responsibility of the government to take necessary steps for their early repatriation.
According to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian (OCHA) Pakistan, the authorities reported another expected outflow from North Waziristan on the extension of military operation into other areas. On August 7, PDMA reported 1,000,428 people (95,109 families) registered as displaced from North Waziristan Agency. All registration points except in Kurram Agency are closed.
As of July 31, NADRA reviewed the registration data of 93,239 families; 53,186 families (57 percent, 581,459 people) were verified while 40,053 families (42.9 percent) were rejected. A separate vulnerability assessment using the six criteria already agreed through the Vulnerability Working Group will be conducted to identify those needing support regardless of verification. Priority needs are food, health, protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene. Urgent funding resources are needed to scale up the humanitarian efforts.
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