KARACHI: The operation in North Waziristan’s Miramshah area of Datta Khel started without an announcement, says Loye Khan, 78. He had an inkling that something was wrong but it was only when he saw his neighbour piling his family’s entire belongings on a small pick-up van that he hurried to get out as soon as possible.

“It was noon when I left my home for Bannu,” he says, “There was complete chaos. People were getting on the rooftop of crowded coasters and trucks. I started walking along with my wife and five children, thinking we may get a bus on the way. But after walking for three hours, we decided to make the rest of the journey to Bannu on foot.” It took the family three days to reach Bannu.

Sitting inside a lawyer’s office in the Afghan Basti area of Sohrab Goth on Monday, his voice goes up a notch when he speaks about his journey from Bannu to Karachi. “It was all fine till Bannu,” he says, calming down a bit. “When we entered Sindh, we were asked all sorts of questions. A police officer, who was my son’s age, asked me whether I’m a Taliban supporter and will help them once I settle in Karachi. I just folded my hands and asked them to let us go ahead.” They were asked to go in the minutes that followed, but not before paying a sum of Rs1,000. It was the collective amount the family had till that point, adds Khan.

It’s been a month since Khan came to Karachi and says he doesn’t like the place at all because it’s too pricey. A daily wage earner “for as long as I remember”, he is now on a look-out to find himself a “proper job this time around”.

Sitting beside him on the same couch was 45-year-old Zar Wali. A driver by profession, he had shifted from South Waziristan to North Waziristan because of the disturbance and later an operation there. A month later he had to move from North Waziristan as well and find a new place to shift his family of 17 people.

Wali pooled in resources with his neighbour Haider Khan and arranged a coaster from North Waziristan. From there, they headed for Bannu and then Sindh. “We passed one of the IDP camps in Bannu. And I decided then and there that I won’t let my family be disgraced like that. We are poor but we have nang and namoos [honour and pride]. They [IDPs] are being treated like animals,” he says as others listen to him silently.

The first thing that a police officer asked Zar Wali and Haider Khan as they reached Sakrand near Nawabshah was, “Haan, dehshetgardon, kidher ja rahay ho?” He then asked them to show their national identity cards and then a paper from some authority giving them permission to enter Sindh. “I had my wife and daughters with me, so I stayed quiet and did as they told me. But I had no papers from the authority. The driver signalled me to hand them some money. They took Rs1,000 and let us go. It was not the only place where we were stopped and asked to identify ourselves or asked for money,” he adds.

From there onwards, as their vehicle moved from Sakrand, the police officers were accompanied by workers of a nationalist party. “There were some men who already had relatives in Karachi. But they were asked to get off the bus after the police officer was asked to check their NIC. They were taken to a police station for further questioning while we stayed there for hours until another police officer informed us quietly to take another route,” he says.

It was a similar pattern from there onwards, says Wali. At some points, they were lucky to meet officers who, he says, were respectful and then there were the ones who asked for money. “At one point, I thought of getting my family properly registered so that we are not bothered. But I could not find any registration camp on our way. I spent around Rs25,000 from Bannu to Karachi,” he explains. As an afterthought, he adds, he doesn’t expect to be compensated. “They can’t compensate the life I spent in my watan (Waziristan) or the problems I know I have to face from now on.”

The office where the men sat and spoke their hearts out belongs to Shah Wali, a high court advocate. At present, he’s working on a petition that he’ll be filing in the high court against the harassment faced by the IDPs. “What I find disturbing is the generalisation faced by these families. You can’t expect all of them to be terrorists or a Taliban supporter. Maybe for them, their biggest struggle is to earn enough to live respectfully. No one can or should take it upon themselves to decide for an entire community and their future by labelling them as Taliban or whatever,” Shah says.

While quoting Sindh Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah as saying that “terrorists” wouldn’t be allowed to enter Sindh, the lawyer says: “Aren’t there reports circulating about Karachi being a hub of Taliban for quite a while now? And since when has public interest taken over national interest?”

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014