KHYBER: Scores of displaced persons from Tirah Valley staged a demonstration in Bara here on Friday against a delay in payment of transport fare to them with arrival of news families considerably reduced.
Sources in Bara told Dawn that angry protesters resorted to pelting stones at the gates of Alamgudar Registration Centre after they lost patience over slow cash distribution.
They said that Friday witnessed an influx of the displaced families at the Alamgudar Centre as they were eager to get the promised transport fare, with the staff members struggling to cope with a large number of newly-arrived internally displaced persons.
Turab Ali, a Sipah resident, told Dawn that most displaced families had already faced numerous problems while traveling from Tirah to Bara in extreme cold and they couldn’t bear any further delay in receipt of money on reaching Bara.
Pelt stones at gates of Alamgudar registration centre
Lal Zamir, a newly-arrived Tirah resident, said that the registration centre’s staff made IDPs wait for a long time without any “valid” reason, so most of them frustrated people resorted to protest while pelting stones at the main gate of the centre as well as a few official vehicles parked outside.
Local sources said that the centre was closed in the evening, with the district administration deciding to announce a new schedule for cash distribution among tribesmen from Tirah to prevent crowding and mismanagement.
They said that while the administration opened four points in Baralast week for the convenience of the newly-arrived Tirah IDPs, cash distribution was made only at the Alamgudar Centre, causing an influx of impatient displaced persons.
The other centres in Shalobar, Malakdinkhel and Qambarabad were comparatively deserted due to reduction in IDP arrivals from Tirah.
Dawn also learnt that the arrival of fresh IDPs from Tirah had considerably slowed down after the evacuation of people from Tirah was suspended by the district administration on Jan 23 when most parts of the valley received heavy snowfall, making travelling on slippery roads nearly impossible.
Some members of a 24-member Tirah Jirga, too, were advising remaining Tirah residents against leaving their houses both due to weather and the confusion caused by statements from federal ministers about the “military operation” against terrorists in the valley.
The district administration didn’t announce any new date for the resumption of the evacuation from Tirah.
However, sources in Bara said that a very few families reached Bara on Thursday and Friday after weather improvement.
Meanwhile, officials in Bara said that 13,725 families comprising nearly 70,000 individuals had arrived in Bara from different parts of Tirah after the evacuation was started in late December.
They added that all those families were provided with mobile SIM cards after undergoing biometric verification at Paindi Cheena and other three registration centres in Bara.
The officials said that remaining families would be registered on arrival in Barain the next few days.
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026
