BANNU: General Officer Commanding (GOC) Maj-Gen Hassan Azhar Hayat has said the army in collaboration with the political administration would retrieve the 942 girls schools in North Waziristan Agency that had been turned into personal hujras by influential people.

Speaking at a prize distribution ceremony at Waziristan Institute of Technology in Mirali tehsil of the tribal agency, he said girls would soon start going to these schools.

Students and elders attended the ceremony. He urged elders not to repeat past mistakes and provide learning environment to their children.

Gen Hayat said security forces and people of North Waziristan had rendered matchless sacrifices for restoration of peace in the tribal agency which was considered hub of terrorism across the world.

`North Waziristan will make progress to become model for other areas of Fata,` he said, adding that total 770 officers and soldiers had lost their lives in operation Zarb-iAzb. In addition, he said, 2,225 soldiers were maimed in the conflict.

He said the army would play itsrole for maintenance of peace in the area. `It will be their (terrorists and their supporters`) wishful thinking if they believe that the days of past willreturn,`he said.

Gen Hayat insisted that North Waziristan had been fully secured and the entire world had focused on the region. He said that North Waziristan had rich deposits of natural resources and people of the area could live prosperous life if these resources were properly explored.

He clarified that army did not occupy lands of any individual or tribe. He said that these lands were made cultivable under a project.

He said that tribal people who had migrated to Afghanistan in the wake of military operation were being brought back to their homes while displaced people residing in Bannu would be repatriated soon.

He said that 72 per cent of the displaced persons had been repatriated to their homes in North Waziristan and engaged in reconstruction activities. He said that illiteracy and unemployment were the root causes of terrorism in the area.

Gen Hayat distributed laptops and certificates among 200 students of the institute.