Thousands of Pakistanis who fled to Afghanistan to escape fighting between the army and militants in the northwestern tribal areas have reportedly begun returning home, approximately two years after they were displaced, officials said. The first batch of 200 tribal families from North Waziristan district wasbeing greeted by officials at the Ghulam Khan border crossing, where a point for the returning tribal refugees had been established, said local administrator Kamran Khan Afridi. He said similar numbers would be arriving daily until January 26, with the families first accommodated in camps before being sent back to their villages and towns. Pakistan’s army launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014 to wipe out militant bases in northwestern tribal areas and bring an end to a bloody insurgency that has cost thousands of civilian lives since 2004.More than two thousand families of North Waziristan migrated to the adjacent province of Afghanistan before the security forces OperationZarb-e-Azb against militants in the area. Also, thousands were displaced internally who had to move to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Peshawar and other regions. Pakistani authorities say 67,000 homes in the tribal belt were completely destroyed, but there has been no independent assessment of the scale of the damage. The country has asked the international community for $800 million to “rebuild and rehabilitate” the tribal areas. Moreover, the authorities had announced earlier last year that a mechanism wouldbe formed for the safe return of the displaced families by the end of the last year, but no progress had been done. Recently, some reports had emerged that some tribal groups had been displaced from camps, rendering them homeless in the cold weather. Other than the locally displaced persons and Pakistanis displaced to Afghanistan due to Operations in FATA region, the Afghan refugees also deserve the attention of the authorities. The people of the bordering areas do not consider the Durand Line as a strictly a border between their Pashtun ethnicity and have relatives living across the frontier. That’s the primary reason some of the families had chosen to move to Afghanistan amid the operation in their region. Therefore, along with the rehabilitation of the returning families from Afghanistan, arrangements should be made for the safe return of the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan for decades. The people of the area have suffered long and deserve special attention of the state to bring them to parity with the other regions of Pakistan. The reforms process of FATA should be expedited, and a comprehensive plan should be put in place for the rehabilitation of the returning families. The region has been at the forefront in the war against terror and has suffered severely. To prevent any future terrorist havens in the area the local community should be onboard with the policies of the state, which can only happen by building a trust with special attention to the region. *