ANALYSIS: IDPs and the problem with graveyards —Farhat Taj - Saturday, November 27, 2010

Source : http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\27\story_27-11-2010_pg3_4

Relatives of a passed away IDP carry his or her dead body from place to place in search of kind people who will allow the body to be buried in their graveyard. Many people are burying dead bodies in other people’s graveyards for a certain duration of time, with the promise to remove the remains after that time

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) confront some serious problems regarding the burial of their deceased relatives during their displacement. Several IDPs invited my attention towards this problem. They say it is a serious problem that befalls the family at a time when it is grieving the loss of a family member. Most IDPs wish to bury their dead in their native areas in FATA but cannot do so due to the ongoing military operations in those areas or high transport expenses. At certain places, the military does not allow people into the war zone even for a quick burial. In other places, the army authorities allow the relatives to transport dead bodies for burial, but many IDPs cannot afford the cost of transportation. In both cases, the deceased have to be buried outside their native areas. Local people in the areas where the IDPs live do not let them bury their dead in their (local people’s) graveyards.

Graveyards in Khyber Pakhtun-khwa are the properties of families, clans or communities. They collect money among themselves to buy more land to expand the graveyard, if more space is needed for new burials. Thus, only the dead bodies belonging to those who contributed in buying the graveyard property are allowed to be buried there.

Some Orakzai IDPs informed me that one of their relatives died during the displacement in Kohat. They were digging his grave in a local graveyard without informing the concerned community that owned the graveyard. Meanwhile, some of the community members came to stop them from the digging. Even upon requests they did not allow them to bury the dead IDP in their graveyard. They asked the IDPs to pay Rs 25,000 or take away their dead body. The IDPs took the dead body to a village in Hangu, where they requested some people to allow them to bury the body on humanitarian grounds. After long negotiations and pleading the burial was allowed.

Another IDP who lives in Rawalpindi informed me that his mother had died in that city. Upon his request, the local people in Rawalpindi conditionally allowed her burial in their graveyard. They allowed his mother to be laid to rest for one year. After a year her son will have to remove her remains to be buried elsewhere. The IDP has no idea where he is to bury the remains after a year’s time. He said he hopes that in a year’s time the security situation in his native area in FATA improves enough to allow him to transport the remains of his mother for a final burial.

IDPs also informed me that relatives of a passed away IDP carry his or her dead body from place to place in search of kind people who will allow the body to be buried in their graveyard. Many people are burying dead bodies in other people’s graveyards for a certain duration of time, with the promise to remove the remains after that time and bury them elsewhere.

The IDPs say that there are people who would like to allow the IDPs to bury their passed away relatives in the local graveyards on a permanent basis. However, the problem is that the IDPs are too many in number. There is no surety about when peace will return to FATA. The local people may have to accommodate many dead IDPs in their graveyards. There is already limited space in most graveyards. Consequently, the concerned local families or communities would have to buy more land to expand the graveyards. Land is very expensive everywhere. Thus, the local people either flatly refuse to allow the IDPs’ burial or allow it for a specific period of time only.

The ongoing terrorism and military operations in FATA have displaced hundreds of thousands of people from the region. Most of these IDPs live in pathetic conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Pakistani media has generally been ignoring their plight and so is the case with the international media, which views the situation in terms of al Qaeda and the Taliban’s ability to commit acts of terrorism in countries other than Pakistan, and they pay inadequate attention to the human suffering caused by the terrorists as well as the Pakistan Army’s operations in FATA. To my knowledge, there have never been any media reports about the problem that the FATA IDPs confront in terms of the burial of their passed away relatives. It seems to be a serious problem in the light of what I hear from the IDPs. I think it is painful and also disrespectful to know that people will have to disturb the remains of a dead person after a year or so and bury them elsewhere or that grieving relatives have to carry dead bodies from graveyard to graveyard to find a final resting place for their loved ones. The government and society at large should come up with some solution to this problem.

The writer is a PhD Research Fellow with the University of Oslo and currently writing a book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban