PESHAWAR: Expressing concern over the delay in registration of thousands of families of Khyber Agency, residents of the tribal region urged the government to give them status of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and announce a comprehensive package for their rehabilitation.

Speaking at a protest camp outside Peshawar Press Club on Friday, elders of Bara, Khyber Agency, said that thousands of displaced persons were residing in different localities without proper shelter and other facilities while many of them had no resources to even properly feed their children.

`We have time and again appealed to the federal government to give IDP status to these people as they have lef t their houses in the best interest of the nation and country, but there is still no response,` said Tehreek Haqoog-i-Bara chairman Shah Faisal Afridi.

Urging the government to announce a comprehensive compensation package, as extended to militancy-affected people of Swat, he said that tribal people were also Pakistanis and had the same rights.

Addressing the demonstrators, Mr Afridi said that the mass displacement took place due to continuous operation in Bara tehsil, but the government did not facilitate the families so far. He said that the military operation `Khyber One` had been launched about two months ago, but the government and relevant officials didn`t take steps to mitigate sufferings of fresh displaced families so far.

He said that a large number of children had been deprived of education, while the basic infrastructure and health facilities were in disrepair. He said that the traders of Bara had suf fered huge financial losses.

Mr Afridi said that the Bara IDPs had been deprived of monthly allowance and winter packages, along with food and non-food facility. He said that Bara IDPs had been facing problems in getting rented houses as could not afford huge rents. He said that the authorities had failed to provide tents to the displaced families at makeshift Jalozai camps despite commitment by the government in this regard.

The tehreek chairman demanded of the federal and provincial governments and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor to take urgent steps for voluntarily return of internally displaced families and their rehabilitation in respective tribal areas. He also urged the rulers to announce a comprehensive package for reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads.