IDPs movement without surveillance poses threat

ISLAMABAD – Arrival of displaced persons from South Waziristan Agency to different cities without any surveillance and tracking mechanism is once again posing a serious threat to peace and security of the country.
According to details, 47 families have so far reached Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 39 have come to Lahore, around 70 have moved to DG Khan and 101 have entered Peshawar, besides hundreds of families sheltering in IDPs’ camps or with their relatives in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
An insight into the IDPs’ episode reveals that apart from Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and Peshawar, the government as well as international organisations like UN which are providing humanitarian assistance to displaced people are totally blank about their movement to other cities. The worst part is that government, UN and its affiliated NGOs have no knowledge or record of the IDPs in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and other cities.
In addition, apart from Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and adjoining belt, no IDPs’ camp or rehabilitation centre has been set up in the aforementioned cities and the displaced people are sheltering on their own or with their kith and kin. On a tentative estimate, over 2,000 individuals have randomly moved to Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and other cities of interior Punjab and NWFP. No official record regarding their movement, stay and exact number of individuals is available with quarters concerned.
A senior UN official recently expressed ignorance regarding the massive movement of IDPs in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The official, in a conversation with TheNation, argued that all those IDPs who were living in camps or with the host communities in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan were being registered, but admitted that the random movement of displaced people in different cities was out of line with UN.