Refugee Crisis Brews in Pakistan

[SSGPA1]

This is a humanitarian disaster far worse than anything seen in the subcontinent since, say the Bangladesh situation in 1971 or perhaps the LTTE situation in Sri Lanka.

How many Kashmiri Pundits migrated from Kashmir in the last 15 years?

Situation in Gujrat during the riots was similar to Bangladesh because the govt. itself slaughtered it's own people.

In FATA and Bajur etc, situation is bad but not a disaster which GoP can't handle!

There is also a possibility that majority of the refugees are actually Afghan refugees.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

500,000 expected to flee from Swat: NWFP govt​

Tuesday, 05 May, 2009 | 07:57 PM PST |
ISLAMABAD: Fighting between Taliban militants and troops in Swat valley triggered an exodus the government said Tuesday could see 500,000 people flee and signaled the end of the peace deal in the area, according to AP.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the North West Frontier Province, said up to 500,000 people were expected to flee the valley. He said authorities were releasing emergency funds and preparing six new refugee camps to house them.

Hundreds have already fled the Swat Valley, adding to the hundreds of thousands of existing refugees driven from other regions in the northwest over the last year by fighting between soldiers and insurgents, witnesses said.

Mian Iftikhar said authorities is allocating five million rupees in each district for internally displaced persons (IDPs), DawnNews adds.

The minister said the first priority of the government is to provide food and essential items to the IDPs.

He directed all the DCOs in the province to use volunteers to aid the refugees.

Khushal Khan, District Coordination Officer (DCO) of Swat said authorities were lifting a curfew so people could leave Mingora, and a camp had been set up for the displaced in the nearby town of Dargai. Hundreds were leaving the city, according to an AP reporter in the town.

‘We are leaving the area to save our lives,’ said Sayed Iqbal, a 35-year-old cloth merchant who was putting household goods in a pickup truck already loaded with his elderly parents, wife and two children. ‘The government has announced people should leave the area. What is there left to say?’

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Family sets example by sheltering 6,000 IDPs​

Thousands in Swabi, Mardan accommodate displaced persons; hundreds others live in tent villages set by government, NGOs

Tuesday, May 05, 2009
By Javed Aziz Khan

PESHAWAR: Thousands of families in Peshawar, Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera and Charsadda are hosting their relatives and friends from the Malakand Division after military operation was launched there, but some individuals proved extraordinarily generous in facilitating these internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The well-off Tarakai family of Swabi has solely accommodated over 6,000 members of around 1,200 families of Buner and other affected towns after they left their homes. The Tarakai House, sprawling over hundreds of Kanals, has been vacated by the family — which has moved to Islamabad — to accommodate those who have fled Buner, Swat and Dir. Tents have been erected on the spacious lawns and gardens of the house to host the families who could not get any of the innumerable rooms in the building.

“Around 250 families are living in our house while over 1,000 families have been accommodated in the charity school of Liaqat Tarakai Trust in Shewa Adda town,” Wilayat Tarakai, a social worker and elder of the Tarakai family, told ‘The News’.

People are also being hosted at Tarakai village, Salim Khan and Swabi city. Wilayat added that a tented village was being developed over an 80-kanal piece of land in the Tarakai village to facilitate more families coming to Swabi from Buner everyday.

The Tarakai family emerged on the political scene of the province after its young member, Shahram, got elected to the post of district Nazim against seasoned politicians in the last Local Bodies elections. Two other members of the family, Usman and Javed Tarakai, later made it to the national and provincial assemblies in the general elections. Usman had defeated ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan to become an MNA.

“Six doctors have been deputed to treat the ailing IDPs. Also 15 vehicles, including six ambulances, coaches, pick-ups and vans have been put at the disposal of the displaced people for their transportation and providing them three-time meal,” Wilayat maintained.

The Tarakai family is also approaching friends and other people to provide them with tents to accommodate hundreds of other families who are still living in the open. Those wishing to support the affected people can approach Wilayat Tarakai on his cell phone numbers: 0300-5006160 and 0333-9858800.
Apart from the Tarakai family, thousands of people have vacated their houses or some of their rooms to host those reaching Swabi and Mardan. Thousands of other families are also settled in the erstwhile Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar and Nowshera where government and NGOs have established tented villages.