KHYBER: Over 300 families of Surankhel sub-tribe of Sipah in Nangrosa village of Upper Bara area here desperately need financial assistance to rebuild their houses as they are still awaiting survey of their damaged houses despite returning to their houses in 2022, residents say.
They told Dawn that some families, frustrated by a lack of response to repeated appeals to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and the Khyber district administration for financial assistance, had started rebuilding houses in desperation on a self-help basis in anticipation of a harsh winter season.
The residents said the entire Nangrosa valley was evacuated in early 2012 after the proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam took over most parts of Upper Bara in Tirah valley.
Haji Bawar Khan, a Surankhel tribesman, told Dawn that majority of the families of Nangrosa, Shiekhmali, Dray Wandi, Kandaw, Sandana, Therkho Kas, Kotki and Speen Jumat had to migrate to Afghanistan via the Mazathal Kandaw, only four kilometres from the Afghan border, in 2012 and 2013 as they couldn’t go to Bara due to lack of road access.
Complain about lack of response by PDMA, district admin to aid requests
He added that after spending time in the bordering towns of Afghanistan, they returned to Peshawar and Bara via the Torkham border in groups while without being registered as internally displaced families as no such registration point was established for them at the border crossing.
The tribesman said the non-registration after their coming back to Pakistan cost them dearly as they were deprived of all the official assistance to which other IDPs of Tirah and Bara were entitled.
Another resident, Sada Gul, said almost all their houses, numbering in hundreds were either partially or fully destroyed during their decade long displacement with none of the returning families having any legal right to claim compensation for the losses due to non-registration.
He said that majority of the Nangrosa village inhabitants had been relying on either farming of livestock with the entire irrigation channel system which they had developed over the last few decades, also collapsed and majority of the livestock too was lost during their period of displacement due to want of space and pastures in Peshawar and Bara.
According to him, with Nangrosa village yet to be reached through road, residents have to cross the Bara river multiple times every day in time of their need, including taking necessary household items, shifting ailing persons to a health unit in Sandana, some five kilometres in distance and also shifting their meagre agricultural produce to nearby markets for sale.
Residents argued that they were in dire need of repair of all the damaged irrigation channels, restoration of drinking water supply from natural springs through regular pipes and a prompt survey of the damaged houses to enable them to rebuild their abodes, most of which were at the risk of collapse due to rough weather conditions.
They urged Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, MNA Iqbal Afridi and MPA Abdul Ghani not only to pay a visit to their area but also to arrange for immediate construction of a road to their village to connect them with the rest of the district and Peshawar.
Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2026
