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PM vows to go the extra mile for IDPs


BANNU: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday promised to increase government spending on all those displaced by the offensive in North Waziristan Agency and saluted their great sacrifices for the country’s brighter future.

“The internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Waziristan are sacrificing their today for a better future and the curse of terrorism will be rooted out from this country because of their sacrifices,” he said during a tour of IDP camps in Bannu on Friday.

Acknowledging the difficulties of IDPs, the prime minister said, “we are working day and night to ease your woes.”

He assured the affected people that the government “will spend the maximum [needed] for IDPs, even if the amount is in billions or trillions”. “We are with you in these difficult times and for this purpose, we have put all of our resources in force.”

PM Nawaz announced that an additional amount of Rs20,000 per month would be given to each family during the month of Ramazan. He said that the allowance of Rs12,000 per month, apart from the monthly Rs3,000 house rent and Rs5,000 food allowance, are already being given to each dislocated family.

In total, they would be getting Rs40,000 for the month of Ramazan.

The prime minister emphasised, “This is no favour, but the duty of this government and the right of the IDPs”. He added, “The government has already made arrangements to provide fodder, grass and feed for [your] livestock. Medical dispensaries will soon be installed where free-of-charge treatment and medicines will be available. Everyone will be given polio vaccinations by the Pakistan Army.”

He also appraised the gathering about the future developmental plans in the affected area. “We are also planning the reconstruction of the affected houses in the area to rehabilitate IDPs once the operation is over. We are simultaneously planning to develop the Fata region with roads, houses, water and sanitation facilities, and other civic amenities so that the lives of the people are at a par with the rest of the country.”

The prime minister appreciated the army officers and its jawans for their sacrifices and commitment for the cause of the nation and said the army is giving up their lives and salaries for the IDPs and they deserve praise from the whole nation for this.

“Inshallah, terrorism will be banished and Pakistan will prosper,” he concluded.

On his arrival to Bannu, the prime minister was received by Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani. He was briefed by Major General Akhtar Jamil about the arrangements made for the IDPs of North Waziristan and he later distributed relief goods and food packages.

PM vows to go the extra mile for IDPs – The Express Tribune


 
Bannu, Pakistan (CNN) -- The road to Bannu city in the northwest of Pakistan is a journey through the elements.

Harsh wind and rain make way for bursts of sunshine in June, a month of typically oppressive heat when illnesses such as diarrhea and typhoid are common, alongside the ever-looming specter of polio.

It is in this stifling heat that hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are fleeing their homes in North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, to Bannu and other neighboring regions. The mass exodus began after the Pakistani army launched a full scale offensive against militants on June 15 called Zarb e Azb, or "The Strike of The Prophet's Sword."

While the Pakistan army has been releasing a daily stream of information regarding the operation, it has come under severe criticism for failing to notify the residents of North Waziristan of an impending operation.

A curfew in North Waziristan crippled the movement of individuals in the region. Military sources told CNN on condition of anonymity that the curfew had been imposed to prevent militants from fleeing, however what resulted was utter chaos for local residents.

Pakistan takes on Taliban militants Brazen terror attacks in Pakistan Battle rages near airport as CNN films
"We waited for the signal to leave while taking shelter under trees," Javed Wazir, a local from the North Waziristan town of MirAli tells CNN in anguish. "The bazaar was under fire from mortar shells and our women and children were crying in despair."

Exodus from Pakistan's troubled north presents risks, opportunities
Mass exodus On June 18, three days after the operation officially started in North Waziristan, the army finally lifted the curfew allowing movement out of the area.

What started as a mass exodus of the region's population has fast accelerated into a humanitarian crisis.

According to Arshad Khan, the director of the FATA Disaster Management Authority, the number of people who have fled the military operation has now reached almost half a million, with 455,000 people scattered across various parts of Northern Pakistan.

In a sports complex in the heart of Bannu city, a dust storm is creating havoc at the city's largest food distribution point for those seeking shelter.
Until Tuesday it was the only food distribution point for the thousands of needy people in Bannu and its surrounding regions, and was the scene of protests airing the frustration they have experienced over the past two weeks.

Wednesday saw hundreds of men, young and old, queue up outside on the streets, shielding their eyes from the grit, waiting to receive their ration of fortified wheat, iodized salt, pulses and cooking oil.

A significant army presence is overseeing the distribution that has been organized by the World Food Program. Sacks of wheat are heaped in mounds in the center of the stadium and a strong hot wind is blowing cardboard cartons into the air.

An old woman in a tattered burqa, clutching a wisp of paper bearing her registration number, waits for her turn to collect food. "Three of my grandchildren died after a bomb fell on our house in the Haider khel village of North Waziristan" she says. "They were five, six and seven years old," she whispers. "That's when we fled."

Request for more supplies
The number of families arriving has exceeded the number estimated by the WFP. According to Lola Castro, the WFP's director in Pakistan, a contingency plan had been updated to deal with a military operation in North Waziristan.
However, she says Pakistani authorities only officially approached the WFP for help on June 20, five days after the strikes began.

WFP had expected the families to be an average size of six but, according to Castro, families fleeing out of North Waziristan are made up of 14 people.
This has lead to rations being distributed on a biweekly basis instead of the usual monthly schedule. "We are requesting donors to provide more supplies but the situation is currently under control," Castro tells CNN.

Malik Akbar Khan, a tribal leader and an IDP, has been volunteering at the food distribution point ever since he arrived in Bannu last week.

The bazaar was under fire from mortar shells and our women and children were crying in despair.

Javed Wazir, North Waziristan resident

As IDPs wheelbarrow their supplies out of the complex, he sighs and says that it is the ordinary people of North Waziristan who have had to bear the biggest brunt of the tussle between the army and the Pakistani Taliban.

As the sun sets on another day of dust and desperation, he quotes the oft-repeated phrase addressing the conflict in Pakistan's northern regions.

"The army are the angels and the Taliban call themselves the companions of the holy prophet," he says. "Perhaps we're the only infidels in this chaos, who suffer the most in this living hell while the other two claim that they're bound for paradise."

'That place is like fire'

There is one refuge for the hordes of people who have spilt out of North Waziristan. The army, along with funding from FDMA and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), has set up a camp in Baka Khel, Bannu district.

In the searing June heat, it sits a mere 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the Saigai check post, the final exit for villagers leaving North Waziristan and entering Bannu district.

According to military sources, the camp became operational on June 16, a day after the military operation began. It has, however, come under severe criticism by the very people it was built to help.

Many are instead choosing to stay with relatives or rent homes in cities such as Bannu, Peshawar and Dera Ismail Khan.

"When the curfew was eased we reached Bannu after a two-day journey on foot, yet we would never stay at that camp. That place is like fire, it's like fire, I would never take my family to that land of flaming heat," Loi Khan from the village of Boya in North Waziristan tells CNN as he stands in line to get food in Bannu.

But a visit to the camp paints a different picture. Temperatures may be rising to as high as 47 degrees centigrade but efforts are underway to create what military guides to the camp call "a model village." There is electricity, plumbing, fancy fans that spray mist and visiting doctors. Polio workers administer vaccines to every man, woman and child entering the camp to prevent any outbreak.

Yet the place is a ghost town. According to military sources only 28 families have chosen to live at the camp, a fraction of those who have left North Waziristan.

It remains empty for the time being but with the month of Ramadan fast approaching and the operation not looking to end anytime soon, military officials overseeing the camp expect it to be operational and fully populated for at least two months.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/26/wo...html?hpt=hp_c1

@babajees

Oh.. Any proofs you mention will either be deleted or the threads locked. After I posted a confirmed picture from a neutral source and some footage from Aljazeera, thread was promptly locked and patriots didn't believe ISPR could lie
 
Oh.. Any proofs you mention will either be deleted or the threads locked. After I posted a confirmed picture from a neutral source and some footage from Aljazeera, thread was promptly locked and patriots didn't believe ISPR could lie
In urdu they say "Bhens ke aage been bajana".
 
Half a million people? Someone fu**** up big time. Quickly finish the operation and then resettle these people back in their homeland.
 
Half a million people? Someone fu**** up big time. Quickly finish the operation and then resettle these people back in their homeland.

This operation WONT end quickly. This is NOT Swat!

The areas of South Waziristan under control of Mehsuds is STILL under operation. People were kicked out of their houses in 2009, and they STILL cant go back.
 
It will today, or in a day or so... please the operation is likely to go on for months, this is not a day or two problem...

meanwhile you can donate to Army relief fund, or PTI Punjab fund or Ex-servicemen fund

Join Pak Exservicemen Association #PESA for IDP relief. Donate to Askari Bank IBAN PK00 00010100239069 generously.

by brig @Samson.Sharaf

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It doesn't allow me to donate money directly via my credit card. Is there any way I can do it? Or you know any other reputable organization that allows to donate via visa other than jernail funds?

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and we are nation ignored them for like 65 years... :(


OK.

So if I choose "US" than I can donate via Paypal. Although I live outside Amrika...I still can donate it, right?

I mean my country offers Paypal services but you guys will still get the money if I choose U.S right?
 
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It doesn't allow me to donate money directly via my credit card. Is there any way I can do it? Or you know any other reputable organization that allows to donate via visa other than jernail funds?




OK.

So if I choose "US" than I can donate via Paypal. Although I live outside Amrika...I still can donate it, right?

I mean my country offers Paypal services but you guys will still get the money if I choose U.S right?
 
Again your Pushtoon nationalism gets the better of you,rubbishing non-Pushtoons as if they don't care. You live in Abbottabad? Dont you? Didnt you notice ho may "Non-Pushtoon" Hazarewals contributing money and material for IDPs? and same is the story all over the country.
Trouble is if IDPs are not in the designated camps,the donations and money collected for them cannot reach them. My own close relatives had collected about 100,000 Rs in just two days and will be going to Bannu IDP camp tomorrow,but i know what they will find there..Only 24 families.
So by getting scattered the IDPs are making it difficult for themselves.

Although i know that the rest of the country being Non-Pushtoon can donate money and do what they want..A pushtoon will only give credit to another Pushtoon as evident from your post and much i saw online and in real life. If anyone is to blame for troubles and isolation of Pushtoons..Its pushtoons themselves.
 
Again your Pushtoon nationalism gets the better of you,rubbishing non-Pushtoons as if they don't care. You live in Abbottabad? Dont you? Didnt you notice ho may "Non-Pushtoon" Hazarewals contributing money and material for IDPs? and same is the story all over the country.
Trouble is if IDPs are not in the designated camps,the donations and money collected for them cannot reach them. My own close relatives had collected about 100,000 Rs in just two days and will be going to Bannu IDP camp tomorrow,but i know what they will find there..Only 24 families.
So by getting scattered the IDPs are making it difficult for themselves.

Although i know that the rest of the country being Non-Pushtoon can donate money and do what they want..A pushtoon will only give credit to another Pushtoon as evident from your post and much i saw online and in real life. If anyone is to blame for troubles and isolation of Pushtoons..Its pushtoons themselves.

OK :D
 
Why not brings in an Aid Program for them from local and other countries and also settle in Thatta and Badin District by planning housing with this Aid Money and set up Mosque, Hospitals and other needed things in that area.

Bringing them to Karachi will not going to solve the problem at all.
Last time they were settled in Karachi,all of them went to Kati Pahari and other Majority Pushtoon localities and having no other skills except years of experience with firearms and no fear of law..Most turned into Extortionists and Kidnap for ransom,target killing and other illegal businesses to make a living . It is still a nightmare for local law enforcements. And people wonder why Big cities stop IDPs from coming in..
 

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