The sprawling complex of tents housing tens of thousands of Pakistanis at Jalozai camp is home for Miza Khan and his family. The tents provide little relief from the scorching summers and the frigid winters. It has been that way for three years now.
Like the other refugees, the Khans fled fighting between Pakistani troops and militant groups including the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the mountainous areas near the border with Afghanistan.
“I came here thinking it would be a few months, but three years have gone by,” Khan said while sitting by the side of a dirt road running through the Jalozai refugee camp. “If there were peace today, I would go back.”
However, there is no peace. Although Pakistan has been reluctant to root out militants who carry out attacks against US forces in neighboring Afghanistan, it has shown much less hesitation in going after insurgents who aim instead to topple the government in Islamabad.
It is a battle that has come at great cost to Pakistan, something not always recognized by critics who say the country is not doing enough in the war on terror. About 30,000 people have been killed by the bloody insurgency in the country’s northwest, which includes the seven tribal regions and the nearby Swat Valley.
About 5 million people have had to flee their homes because of Taliban militants and Pakistani operations against them, in both the tribal regions and the Swat Valley.
Those who have returned often find destroyed homes, a lack of jobs and a militarized landscape marked by checkpoints, curfews and the threat of renewed Taliban attacks.
About 1 million still cannot go back, and still more are fleeing as operations against the militants continue.
About 90 percent of the displaced people rent houses or live with relatives, making it challenging for the government or aid agencies to get them often urgently needed supplies. It is unknown how many have found jobs.
About 65,000 refugees from the tribal regions are currently living at Jalozai, a Pakistani government camp about 30km southwest of Peshawar and run with the help of international aid agencies. It is one of three camps in the country for Pakistanis displaced by the fighting.
Many residents complain that the food rations are not enough, especially when they have large families. Taj Ghul, from the Khyber tribal region, said he and his extended family have been supplementing their rations with food he was able to purchase only by selling the family’s vehicles.
“That’s all gone in the stomach. There’s nothing left,” he said.
Still, hardly anyone regrets leaving their home.
Azrath Khan, 60, said he fled the embattled Khyber town of Bara about a year ago.
“Even before the government started its operation [in Khyber], the main problem with the Taliban was that they were kidnapping whoever was a little wealthy — and for the poor, the Taliban were pushing them to get along with them,” Azrath Khan said.
Others spoke of how the Taliban tried to enforce their own brand of religious justice, often forcing men to grow beards and beheading or hanging opponents.
However, refugees also were critical of the Pakistani military, saying soldiers had little regard for civilians caught in the crossfire. If the militants fire one mortar shell, the army fires 50 shells in response, Miza Khan said.
A Pakistani military official who has served in the tribal areas said this was an exaggeration and that the military was disciplined in its use of firepower. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters on the issue.
Returning home can also be fraught with difficulty.
People usually get six months of food from the World Food Programmeand compensation from the government if their houses or property were destroyed in the fighting, but many complain that the compensation is delayed.
Many report that schools and hospitals have been destroyed or that the doctors or teachers have not returned. The civilian government’s presence has never been especially strong in the tribal regions, one of the country’s least developed areas.
Zahid Mahsud said when he returned about a year ago to his home in South Waziristan, he saw that the military had built markets and was renovating damaged schools, but he was still waiting for compensation for his destroyed house.
Others complained about the military’s presence. Abdul Sattar, who returned with his five children to his South Waziristan home last month after three years as a refugee, said soldiers remain everywhere.
“We are facing great difficulties because of army checkpoints and their checking procedures. Sometimes we cover a distance of an hour in almost four hours,” he said. “Peace is in the area, but this peace is like you are in jail.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese