Documentary launched to highlight plight of Pakistani IDPs

Ethnologist Samar Minallah speaks at the launching ceremony of documentary on displaced people of Bajaur Agency at the Peshawar Press Club, Thursday . -- Sardar Mahmood ul Hassan

RAWALPINDI, September 18 (Maverick Report): A noted Pakistani anthropologist, Samar Minallah, has launched a 17-minute documentary to highlight the miseries and agonies of the people displaced by the ongoing military operation in the troubled Bajaur Agency.

The documentary, titled ‘Da Bajaur Guloona’ (Pashto translation of Homeless at Home) and produced and directed by Ms Minallah, explicitly portrays the hardships the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are facing at makeshift camps.

Launched at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, the documentary covers the IDPs living in a camp in Nowshera district near Peshawar. Those interviewed by the producer for the documentary talked of the troubles they faced while leaving their homes and the problems they are facing at the camp.

In the documentary, the IDPs including men, women and children recount the tales of their ordeals when their houses were bombed. All of them long for their hometown and demand an end to the action by the military and activities of militants that ruined their lives and rendered them homeless in their homeland.

Speaking the launching ceremony, Ms Minallah said the documentary is aimed at highlighting the sufferings of IDPs, particularly women and children, hit hard by the ongoing military action in the agency on August 6.

“Local as well as international human rights organisations should realise the gravity of the situation and raise voice for the innocent civilians facing the brunt of the so-called war on terror,” she stressed.

Ms Minallah, who comes from comparatively peaceful Haripur district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, said the use of force would not bring peace and normalcy to the area rather it would create mistrust among the young generation, leading to further unrest.

“They will get disappointed with the state and that will be a dangerous phenomenon. I am against the use of force as dialogue is the only way to resolve the thorny issues. We have to win the confidence and trust of the children of the area as only then they would become ambassadors of peace,” he said while responding to questions raised by media persons and the civil society representatives.

Ms Minallah, whose home district is separated from Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, by Margallah Hills, said she spent two years in Bajaur Agency. She said the region that used to be fun loving with active participation of womenfolk in the most spheres of life had now been turned into an epicentre of death, doom and destruction. “A comparison between the two states of Bajaur saddens me," she remarked.

The female anthropologist said the documentary was aimed at raising awareness about the seriousness of the issue so that concerted efforts could be launched to end the ordeal of the area dwellers. She deplored that a large chunk of Bajaur population had been displaced and forced to live in other areas of the country but the grave human tragedy was not being highlighted by the western media.

“The western media should quit inertia and spotlight the miseries the people of Bajaur Agency have been going through since the launch of the military operation,” she said.

An MPhil from the University of Cambridge, Samar has been highlighting the plight of women and children through her organisation, Ethnomedia, for the last 15 years. She works in the field of media and communications for a social change. It strives to highlight issues of human rights through electronic media in a culturally sensitive way.

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