Residents in Tirah Valley await compensation for the military operation

KHYBER AGENCY: Residents of the scenic Tirah Valley await compensation a year after a military operation in their villages ended.

They claim to have returned to houses which had been razed to ground. “Business has suffered. Many of us don’t have houses to live in anymore,” said a resident.

The valley was held hostage by Taliban militants for over a decade. From 2005 till 2015 residents lived amid fear for their lives and property.

In 2013 the military launched an operation in the valley before which the area was vacated of peaceful residents. They were repatriated in tent villages on the outskirts of the valley.

These internally displace persons (IDPs) as they later began to be called returned to their villages in 2015. But they complain that their houses have been bombed to the stoneages.

A government official in the valley speaking to Geo News explained that in its first phase residents of North and South Waziristan are being compensated. “In the second phase residents of Khyber Agency will be compensated.”

Tirah is thankful to the Pakistan Army, but its residents hope that they will have roof on their heads soon.