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Kunar families who fled Pak attacks need aid

author avatar
29 Jun 2014 - 15:46
author avatar
29 Jun 2014 - 15:46

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Displaced by Pakistani rocket attacks from eastern Kunar province, a large number of families, who have arrived in Nangarhar, say they are desperate for shelter in the face of scorching heat, which makes the observance of fasting more difficult.

Over the past many years, rockets, artillery rounds and missiles have periodically been fired from Pakistan into a number of districts in Kunar. Hundreds of families fleeing the attacks have taken refuge in various parts of Nangarhar.

A majority of the displaced families are living in their makeshift arrangements in Behsud Pul, Kama Pul areas and along the banks of Behsud River.

Suliman, who belongs to the Shegal district of Kunar, told Pajhwok Afghan News the rocket attacks forced them into leaving homes but they met with new problems in Nangarhar.

He said they had no work opportunities in Nangarhar and were living in their tents along the Behsud river banks amid acute shortage of food.

“We stay in the open in these days of Ramadan despite hot weather, unemployment and shortage of food,” he said, urging the government to assist them with shelter and food.

Mira Jan, a displaced person from Dangam district, said rockets fired from Pakistan landed day and night in their area. He lost two children to the shelling and opted to leave home with a few belongings to live as refugee elsewhere.

“No one has so far come to assist us. I wonder where the government and the aid-giving agencies are.”

Another displaced person from Shegal district, Mohammad Daud, made similar complaints. He said it had been months they left homes and arrived in Nangarhar but were yet to be provided any assistance.

He said they had been in problems in Kunar but their existing problems in Nangarhar multiplied with the advent of Ramadan in the absence of government’s aid.

Nangarhar Refugee Affairs Director Ghulam Haider Faqiri acknowledged the problems being faced by the displaced families, which he said numbered nearly 300.

He said some of the families had been provided with essential food and non-food items and the rest would be provided the same, pending a survey by his department’s workers.

Faqiri also said some of the families had been financially assisted after they submitted applications in this regard.

“Each of those families were given 8250afs in cash, four sacks of wheat, as many tins of ghee, half a sack pulses and kitchen accessories,” he said.

Besides Kunar families, the official said they had assisted the displaced families of Achin district and the process to assist the displaced families was ongoing.

A few days ago, Kunar governor Shujaul Mulk Jalala told Pajhwok Afghan News the Pakistani shelling had newly displaced around 1500 families who faced a lot of problems.

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