Humanitarian crisis getting worse

MARDAN - Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) pouring in Mardan from the militancy-hit areas of the NWFP are a lot more than the number that exhausted and under-staff administration can brace for.
Much more Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the militancy-hit areas of the NWFP are pouring into Mardan than the exhausted understaffed district administration and infrastructure can brace for.
The relief camp at Sheikh Yasin Town, established on the other day, received 1361 families by yesterday while the main gate of the camp could be seen crowded with the fresh influx. The Camps In-charge, Tehsildar Syed Rehman informed TheNation that some three thousand people were still lying unregistered in the camp, saying the district administration was so exhausted that couldnt even register the IDPs.
He said that the untrained and understaffed administration had so far installed 1280 tents with the help of unorganised volunteer youth of the locality and the students of nearby situated schools and colleges.
He informed that the students were ensuring availability of drinking water while the UNICEF was establishing makeshift bathrooms. However, he said, they were receiving no solid help from the provincial and central governments or donor agencies.
However, some IDPs voiced serious concerns over the alleged maltreatment and insulting behaviour of Camp organizers at Sheikh Shehzad Town, Mardan. We dont know where is registration office but we are told to make a queue on one side and after 2-3 hours standing in this scorching heat, the administration asked us to go to other camp and make a fresh queue there. This is what we are practising since we arrived in this camp for the last two days, Sharif Khan, 35, complained.
Covering a long journey from the restive Mingora city, along with his wife, an ailing mother and four kids, by foot through donkey-carts and a truck, the distressed Khan was holding his National ID card in hand to get a registration card in the camp but was unsuccessful till Monday evening.
Gul Zaman, an aging man from the rugged Swat Valley, criticized the senior officials of District administration, as they were just visiting the camp to have photo sessions and give interviews to the TV channels. They are least bothered about us but we have no other way to do, he commented.
Inside the Sheikh Yasin Camp, too, the situation was indescribably terrible. There was no food, no drinking water and no proper medical aid. Majority of men and women were wearing torn shoes, as they had walked for miles on foot. The Naib Nazim said a number of children and women had died due to lack of medical facilities in the past couple of days.
A young boy, Hazrat Bilal said that his family was out of food since they had entered the camp. The food being provided here is sufficient for one person only and after taking that to the tent and coming back to fetch some more food, that is finished, Bilal said.
A political worker, Abid Ali Advocate said that he witnessed mass scale corruption in the distribution of relief goods. He urged the authorities to constitute vigilance teams to supervise the distribution of food and other relief goods.
Though tents were being installed on a war footing in the Camp, yet inside the tents there was being provided nothing of the kind like kitchen utensils, luggage, water coolers, hand fans and blankets, etc. The unfortunate displaced people were scorched in the suffocating small tents, as there was no electricity in the camps.
The most disappointing fact discovered during the visit to the two camps was that there could be seen no camp or members of the much talked and publicized National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which has been set up with billions of rupees to cope with such like situations.
The Sheikh Yasin Camps In-charge shared with this scribe that NDMA, a government body, had offered them tents but with no transportation. We (NDMA) could provide the tents but the district administration of Mardan should pay the cost of transportation, he cited an NDMA official as offering to help IDPs. How could we fetch those tents when we cant manage the camp here, Rehman wailed.
District Naib Nazim Ibrahim Biland said that they were given no instructions prior to the fresh military operation. Therefore, he said, the district administration could not devise proper planning to cope with the situation.
He informed that they had so far registered more than half a million IDPs in district Mardan while much more were not yet registered. He said that donor agencies had so far set up only five distribution points, which, too, he said only provided wheat flour and ghee. He admitted that substandard food was being provided in the camps.
Ziaullah, who came from Swat yesterday, narrated terrible episodes regarding the humanitarian crises resulting from the fresh military assault. He said that there was no one to take the injured to the hospitals and bury the dead ones. He said that last night Khateeb of Masjid Amanullah was killed in shelling but his corpse remained lying in open as every one was fleeing the area and no one had time to bury him.
Others said there was no traffic beyond Thana, some 40 kilometres from Swats headquarters Mingora. Attaullah and Umar Khaliq said that they walked on foot up to Thana with their families.
Attaullah said that the Taliban had further infiltrated the area after the fresh military offensive. Before the recent operation, the militants were restricted to hilly areas of Gat Pewchar, Matta, Khwaza Khela and Manglawar, etc but now they had occupied houses abandoned by the fleeing population in every town including Mingora, he narrated.