Eid in North Waziristan

Floodlights lighted up the dusty, uneven ground. A sizeable crowd of men, both young and old, had gathered around the field. Some were cheering, others were silent, engrossed in the ongoing game.

The football match went on till dusk, before the crowd finally broke for sehri, a pre-dawn meal. This is now a ritual. Every night, a football match commences in a part of Mir Ali, a town in war-torn North Waziristan.

A few years ago this was unimaginable. Violent militants, both local and foreign, had overrun Waziristan. The tribal stretch, which runs along the border with Afghanistan, was used to train suicide bombers, store ammunition and chalk up plans to attack targets in Pakistan. Then in 2014, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb to cleanse the area of terrorists.

Over 100,000 families were displaced by the ensuing war. Many moved to government-run camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Now, three years on, 82 percent of the families have returned home, according to the Fata Disaster Management Authority. The 3,000 in Afghanistan are expected to return by next month.

“Our grounds are buzzing again with activity,” says Kamran Afridi, the political agent in North Waziristan, “For over ten years, our younger generation was either killed or suffering from immense trauma. It makes me very happy to see them on the field every night playing soccer till morning.”

Football is a popular sport in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), unlike the rest of Pakistan where cricket has a larger fan base.

On June 20, a professional football tournament, the first of its kind, was held in the region. Twenty-six teams participated in the series. “The Pakistan Army has constructed a sport complex named after Younis Khan about 15 kilometers from Mir Ali,” says Ehsanullah, the top soccer of one of the teams, “We want more of such sport arenas here.”

Those who have returned will also be celebrating their first Eid at home after many years.

New shopping centres built by the Pakistan Army– namely the Pakistan Market, Khaddi, and Boya – in North Waziristan, are thronging with people preparing for the Eid holidays.

Reham Noor, 30, has just bought his children shoes, glittery outfits and toys for the Eid holidays. “The markets are no longer empty. The grounds are no longer empty. It is good to be home,” he tells Geo.tv.