PESHAWAR: After seven years of refugee life, the repatriation of Pakistani fleeing to Afghanistan on the occasion of military operation Zarb-e-Azb has started.
At the time around one million people by some estimates from North Waziristan have opted to leave for bordering provinces in Afghanistan In June 2014, the Pakistan army has initiated a mega operation against the Islamist militants in North Waziristan, now a newly merged tribal district with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The armed forces banned vehicle travel and so many families left in a hurry with just the clothes they were wearing to bordering Afghanistan. The families set foot on Pakistani soil, start performing Attan (traditional dance) to the beat of drums, in which civil and military officials also participated along with the local tribes.
Among them, Shakir Dawar, 35, is the one who chose to take refuge life in Afghanistan rather than to relocate elsewhere in Pakistan after the military operation started in North Waziristan.
Dawar lived in the Gulan refugee camp in Khost province and completed their process, and now returning to Pakistan in the third phase of repatriating Pakistani refugees from Afghanistan.
He remembers the days when the military announced an offensive against the militant group in the area said “there was an announcement in the mosque to evacuate their homes in North Waziristan. We were only three days to travel to relocate my family in Pakistan” Dawar added.
He explains the demographic situation of north Waziristan said that “Instead to reallocate in Pakistan, we chose to travel to Afghanistan and live with the relative in Khost. There are a number of North Waziristan tribesmen, who have relatives on both sides of the borders” Dawar added.
He recalls the condition of life in the camp in Afghanistan said “we were facing a bleak future as international organizations withdraw from Gulan camp in 2019, due to which funding for their assistance was omitted and was hard to live there anymore. 
He further concluded with concern during living in the camp said that “the aid provided to us in the camp was never been enough for our family because tribals have a number of family members which was so difficult to feed.
The government of Pakistan has set up a camp to house the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Bakka Khel area near Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Baka Khel camp is located some 15km from North Waziristan while 212 km away from Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Nearly half a million registered people have been forced out of North Waziristan, including nearly 80,000 that have made their way to Afghanistan.
Talking to the media on Ghulam Khan terminal, the deputy commissioner of North Waziristan said that the registration center for the returning families has been set up, where the process of registration and verification by NADRA will be completed.
He explains the development on the first day of repartition said that “about 30 refugee families reached to the Ghulam Khan border, who was received by the district administration including Iqbal Wazir, the provincial minister for resettlement, relief, and rehabilitation.
The district administration elaborated that all the refuges families in Afghanistan will be repatriated to Pakistan and families will be sent to the area which is clear while the rest of the families will be resettled in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Peshawar, and DI Khan
Talking about the medical facilitates for the third phase of repartition said that the district health department has established health care facilities on Ghulam Khan Border to ensure health status, Covid & Polio vaccination to the returning families to North Waziristan.
He further concluded that food, transport, shelter is also arranged for registered and certified family coming from Afghanistan while each individual will be given Rs. 12,000 per month as cash assistance and Rs. 8,000 as ration allowance for survival in Pakistan
There are 9,100 families, or more than 65,000 individuals, have registered in the province of Khost, and another 2,000 families in the province of Paktika, Afghanistan
It is a rare reversal of roles for the neighboring countries that most of the last three decades, Afghans have fled conflict in their own country for safety in Pakistan.
In Pakistan, more than 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees are still residing down from more than 3 million in 1988, where they share a language, religion, and culture.
on contact with Iqbal Wazir, Provincial minster for resettlement, relief, and rehabilitation said that these families were residing in Afghanistan for many years due to poor law and order situation in North Waziristan.
The provincial minister said that all arrangements have been made for the people of North Waziristan, who are returning to Pakistan is proof that peace in the region has been fully restored.
Talking about the military operation in Pakistan, the provincial minister said that the Pakistan Army and the people have made great sacrifices to restore peace in the newly merged tribal district of Pakistan
He explains the government’s vision for peace said that establishing peace in the entire province and country, including the tribal districts, is the top priority of the present provincial and federal governments in Pakistan.
The provincial minister concluded that after the establishment of peace, the process of development is in full swing and the people stand with Pakistan Army for the establishment of peace in North Waziristan.
The inaccessible and mountainous tribal area of North Waziristan was home to a swirling array of violent jihadists for over a decade. The government of Pakistan believes that the defeat of the militants was one of the most successful anti-jihadist campaigns in the world.
In two years of fighting the army lost more than 872 men and believes it killed over 2,000 militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan. However, in North Waziristan as a whole, the army found 310 tons of explosives and more than two million rounds of ammunition.
