PESHAWAR: Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) is set to start return process of internally displaced persons (IDPs) for Tirah valley in Khyber Agency from Wednesday next.

An official said that more than 6,000 displaced families would be sent back to the violence-stricken valley, which had been de-notified as conflict zone. These people would be resettled in Bagh and Maidan areas of Tirah.

Transit camp has been set in Dabori, Orakzai Agency where IDPs would stay for a night on way to Tirah.

The official said that those families hadbeen residing in Jalozai camp (Nowshera), Jerma Camp (Kohat), and New Durrani Camp (Kurram Agency) and off camp in Peshawar.

The returning IDPs would get food ration for six months.

`This will be the last batch of IDPs to be sent back to Tirah. The return process is likely to be completed within a month,` the official said, adding that 6,000 displaced families had gone back to their homes last year.

Sources said that the federal government had released Rs100 million last month, to be distributed among 12,000 registered displaced families from Tirah. They said that each affected family would get Rs25,000 cash assistance. The cheque distribution process would start soon.

The United Nations` bodies would provide shelter kits, food, non-food items and transport to the returning IDPs. Officials said that around 300 families would return to their homes daily following which unregistered IDPs, whose number had not been ascertained, would be sent back to Tirah. The shelter kit contains steel girders, bricks, ironsheet and cements.

Officials said that more than 17,000 families had fled the area after security forces launched operation there against militants in May 2013. These affected families took shelter in and off camps in Kurram, Hangu, Kohat and Peshawar. Violence has left trail of destruction in the area.

The damage need assessment survey conducted by the UN Human Settlement Programme has portrayed a bleak picture of the area. It said that 25 per cent houses were completely destroyed while the roofs of 45 per cent other houses were damaged.

The report said that damage to 70 per cent of the roofs posed a serious threat to the environment and the households to survive in harsh winters without roof. Owing to widespread destruction of houses, the returning IDPs had constructed makeshift shelter to protect themselves from harsh weather.

According to official estimates, about 14,000 verified and unverified families had already sent back to Khyber Agency till November last. Officials said that political ad-ministration had deployed personnel of Levies Force in the de-notified area while reconstruction of the main road to Aranga was underway. The administration has established an office for naib tehsildar in Tirah.

The FDMA officials in Khyber Agency told Dawn that around 7,200 families of Malikdinkher, Bar Qambarkhel, Shalobar and Zakhakhel would be repatriated in about four weeks. Officials said that arrangements were made at New Durrani camp and Jarma where every returning family would be provided with free transport, non-cooked food for three months and a package of daily use items.

FDMA had earlier planned to start the second phase on March 1 but officials said that it was delayed owing to excessive rains in Tirah that caused landslide and erosion of some link roads in parts of the valley.

Khyber Agency political administration has also established offices in the valley to facilitate the rehabilitation of returning families.

The administration has also started recruiting khasadars from different tribes of Tirah alongside establishment of khasadar checkposts.