MIRAMSHAH: Repatriation of tribal people who fled to Afghanistan in the wake of a military operation in North Waziristan Agency would restart from today (Monday), the agency’s top official said.

Political Agent Kamran Khan Afridi told mediapersons here on Sunday that 1,200 individuals would arrive in North Waziristan Agency via Ghulam Khan border crossing point. He said that a registration cum verification centre had been set up near the checkpost where those returning would be issued registration cards.

He said that the arrivals would be brought to Bakakhel camp in Frontier Region Bannu and would be sent back to their homes. He said that approximately 6,000 people of North Waziristan Agency were currently residing in Afghanistan’s Khost province.

Thousands of people living near the border had migrated to Afghanistan when military launched operation Zarb-i-Azb against local and foreign militants in the tribal agency. Over one million people fled to settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country.

Return of IDPs is near completion and the government plans to repatriate all IDPs to their homes in Fata this year.

Officials claimed that 90 per cent of the IDPs had returned to their homes in North Waziristan.

They said that a jirga of Ahmadzai Wazir tribe also held at Ghulam Khan on Sunday discussed the return plan. It was decided that members of Haderkhel Wazir tribe would be brought from Afghanistan.

They agreed that members of Madakhel Wazir tribe would return in the next phase. The Fata Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with the army and political administration is facilitating the return programme of IDPs.—Correspondent