Displaced and Disturbed in Pakistan

People displaced by militancy and the military operation wait to get registered in Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS.By Ashfaq YusufzaiPESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 2 2014 (IPS) Every night in his sleep, Rizwan Ahmed sees his sons being killed. “When he wakes up, he starts crying. He realises they are dead and it was the nightmare he has been having,” says Dr. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the psychiatrist treating him. Ahmed, 51, used to be a school employee in Bara Khyber Agency in Pakistan’s militancy-hit Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) before tragedy struck almost a year ago. “He lost his two sons in the violence back home. His grief mounted every passing day.The loss of close relatives, displacement, and the conditions in which they now live has led to widespread mental disorders. “He was brought to our hospital in December last year in the last stage of a mental disorder. Now his chances of improvement are thin. Had he come earlier, he could have been treated,” Hussain, executive director of the Health Promotion Welfare Society (HPWS), told IPS. HPWS runs the 40-bed Iftikhar Psychiatric Hospital (IPH) located on the outskirts of Peshawar, to help mentally ill patients from FATA. More than two million people have been displaced from FATA, adjoining the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, due to militancy and military operations. The loss of close relatives, displacement, and the conditions in which they now live has l...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Active Citizens Aid Armed Conflicts Asia-Pacific Civil Society Crime & Justice Democracy Development & Aid Editors' Choice Featured Gender Global Geopolitics Global Governance Headlines Health Human Rights Peace Regional Source Type: news