Repatriation of IDPs in Pak to start from March 16

The repatriation process of the nearly 70,000 people who were displaced in 2009 due to a military operation in Pakistan's South Waziristan, will be resettled back in the tribal region, beginning next month.
The registration process of the internally displaced people (IDPs) will start from March 8 at Political Compound SWA in Tank district of Khyber Pakthunkhwa and will continue upto March 11, Assistant Political Officer South Waziristan, Nawab Safi said.
Safi further said that Rs 10,000 would be given to each family through sim cards for transport facility while Rs 25,000 would be given to them through ATM upon arrival in South Waziritan.

Similarly ration for six months and other utensils would be provided to the IDP families, he added.
The people had to move out of the trouble-torn region in the northwestern part of the country when the Pakistan Army launched the Rah-e-Nijat (Path of Salvation) offensive against Taliban militants in the region, then considered a militant stronghold.
After the operation, the army seized control of all major towns from the Taliban even as the rebels fled to mountainous countryside to launch targeted attacks.

The rehabilitation process was initiated in 2012 but only a fraction of the displaced people could be sent back then.

Around eight thousand people will return to their villages in Sararogha and Sarokai districts in the first phase of rehabilitation, Safi added.
The displaced people had been frequently demanding from the government to allow them to go back.
There are also reports that settlement of more than one million people displaced by last year's operation in North Waziristan may also begin from March.