World | Pakistan
Government plans phased return home for displaced people
Process to take one month as army clears militants out of Swat.
- By Fasihur Rehman Khan, Correspondent
- Published: 23:26 July 3, 2009
Islamabad: The Internally Displaced People (IDPs) of Swat and Malakand regions will start returning to their homes in a week.
The whole process will take one month to complete, officials of the Special Support Group established by the Pakistani government say.
The officials however said the exact date of the IDPs return will be announced by the Frontier province government soon.
Buner district IDPs will be returning in the first phase, followed by Dir people and Swat valley people will return to their homes in the third phase.
The Pakistani government has already announced that the IDP return process will be carried out by the country's army which is already in the process of clearing Swat of militants.
Around 3 million IDPs from Swat and adjacent areas poured into adjoining districts of NWFP at the beginning of May as the military operation started. Most of these are living in adverse conditions and scorching heat in makeshift camps in Mardan, Charsada, Swabi and Peshawar areas of the province.
Meanwhile, the government has also started distributing monetary compensations to IDPs. In Charsada district nearly 13,000 affected families were given Rs340 million (Dh28 million), Rs25,000 for each family.
This monetary compensation is distributed through bank cards made especially for IDPs in their refugee camps. The Pakistani government is planning to distribute Rs6.7 billion in the first phase.
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