Biggest operation, largest migration in country’s history

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

Driving along the busy Jamrud Road in bumper-to-bumper traffic as you traverse the stretch between Spin Jumaat and University Town police station your attention is automatically drawn by a few neat and clean camps set up on the southern pavement in order to collect donations for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) arriving from three affected districts - Lower Dir, Buner and Swat - of the violence-hit Malakand division where security forces are simultaneously battling militancy at present.

You jump on the brakes of your vehicle and slowdown to notice the unusual aspects of the otherwise common spectacle. Located just in front of the renovated Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) laboratories, the first thing that strikes the casual visitor is the choice of camp-site by the organisers.

Across the road just towards the northern side, the thoughtful and visionary research scholars dreamily move in and out of the PCSIR laboratories with an absent-minded air.

A few yards towards the east, vigilant police officers, in smart uniforms walk in and out of the heavily fortified University Town police station with or without a swank. Appeals for donations coming out of the camps get temporarily drowned by the loud prayer call given by the Spin Jumaat muezzin. After the prayers, the young man in sky-blue dress switches on the amplifier once again and appeals to the passers-by to offer generous donations for the fellow Muslims facing difficulties.

The visitors idly stand and stare at the posters attached to the camps. The moving pictures have obviously been taken by professional photographers.

With hair dishevelled like her fate, the minor girl can hardly hold back the tear stuck into her dark eyelashes. Sitting atop the baggage, packed into the Toyota pick-up van, she cannot precisely judge the speed at which the driver is tearing her apart from the native greenery in Swat.

She can hear the clatter of guns in the distance. The PAF jets roar in the skies above to pound the positions of the militants on the mountains. She is too young to understand politics but her parents read in newspaper that security forces are giving a tough time to militants in Adezai and Maidan tehsils of Lower Dir.

The local administration in Swat has handed down relief goods to an NGO for onward distribution among about 240 children rendered orphan during the military operation. The relief goods include food items, clothes and blankets.

As the coincidence would have it, Malakand happens to be the biggest division of Frontier province with regard to area and population. Statistics always make a dull reading but according to the 1998 census, the population of the division stood at 42,62,700 persons. The population growth rate in the area being 3.27 per annum, its present population should approximately be around 60,72,964. The total population of NWFP stands at about 2,40,57,000.

Out of the seven districts of Malakand division, Swat is at the top with a population of more than 18,10,000. Similarly, Lower Dir has 10,38,000, Upper Dir 7,77,000, Buner 7,67,000, Malakand 6,50,000, Shangla 6,20,000 while Chitral is at the bottom with the lowest population of 4,20,000.

Sources in the United Nations believe that from April 25 to May 8 about 800,000 to one million IDPs have moved out of the area. The population of three affected districts - Lower Dir, Swat and Buner - happens to be around 3.6 million.

Unofficial statistics say that 1.8 to two million people have moved out from Malakand division alone. Rightly or wrongly, the observers describe this as the biggest military operation as well as the largest migration of the people in the country's 62-year-long history of independence.

It is feared that in the coming few days when the ongoing operation intensifies into its second phase, the number of IDPs may further go up.

Authorities gave a break in the curfew on Sunday so that people in the affected areas - Qambar, Banna Baba Ziarat, Chamaktalai, Ramakandhao (Matta), Peuchar, Mashkomai, Loisar (Shangla) and Sultanwas (Buner) - could move out to safer areas. The authorities have issued similar instructions to people in Kanju, Imam Dheri, Damghar, Ehsan Colony, Ghanshal and the adjoining areas.

Volunteers attached with various humanitarian organisations are of the opinion that in order to cope with the rush of IDPs, the government can announce summer holidays in educational institutions ahead of schedule and at least for three to four months use the official buildings as temporary residential camps. ISPR updates also suggest that security forces may well take two to three months to mop up pockets of resistance.

Some days back the director-general of Pakistan Academy of Letters, Fakhar Zaman, came to Peshawar and presided over the meeting of the activists of Progressive Writers' Movement.

Despite age and health problems, Hameed Akhtar came all the way from Lahore to attend the meeting. In one of his recent newspaper columns, he referred to Lahore-based weekly magazine 'Hum Shehri' (May 1-7 issue) which carried some background material about the 'Nizam-i-Adl Regulation'.

Residents of Peshawar and other NWFP cities living abroad understandably feel concerned about developments at home. In order to get updates and enlightened comments on the situation they subscribe to a web site - pktimes.com - which puts together for its subscribers the daily television talk shows aired by Pakistani channels in English, Urdu and regional languages. Overseas Pakistanis even with highly tight schedules try to find time to log on to the site to get tuned to their favourite talk shows.