KURRAM / KARACHI: According to philanthropist Faisal Edhi, the lack of supplies, including medications, has made the humanitarian situation in Parachinar worse and endangered lives.
Essential medications are desperately needed here. He told Dawn from Parachinar, where he had flown in with supplies on Tuesday, that “the situation has become critical and dozens of children are suffering from pneumonia.”
Weeks after dozens of people were killed in riots sparked by sectarian and tribal conflicts, helicopters are being utilized to carry medications and necessities to unrest-plagued areas of Kurram since several important roads remain shut.
The Edhi Air Ambulance Service transported several ill and injured individuals to Peshawar for treatment on Tuesday and brought medications to Parachinar.
After an attack on a convoy of cars last month and the ensuing violent confrontations that claimed over 130 lives, the Parachinar-Peshawar highway and the Pak-Afghan border are both closed.
In areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border, the road closures have caused a severe shortage of food, medications, and other necessities.
Mr. Edhi informed Dawn that Parachinar’s medical facilities were not prepared to handle the growing patient population, many of whom were in urgent need of life-saving treatment.
“We don’t even have enough firewood to keep these patients warm, and there is no infrastructure in place to do so.”
He claimed that there was no insulin available for diabetics and that individuals in critical condition immediately needed to be moved to other places.
“We flew two female patients to Peshawar just now, one with a spinal cord injury and the other with cancer,” he stated.
Speaking to reporters at Benazir Bhutto Airport in Parachinar earlier, Mr. Edhi stated that the air ambulance made two sorties, transporting medications and evacuating the wounded. At the District Headquarters Hospital, he also had meetings with patients.
Mir Hassan Jan, the hospital’s medical superintendent, gave Mr. Edhi an update on the medication shortage and other matters.
He claimed that in addition to the lack of medications, the region’s stores have ran out of food, fuel, and other necessities as a result of the road closures.
“People are in pain.”
The KP government said in a statement that a third shipment of medications transported by helicopter has arrived in Parachinar.
It stated that a minimum of two months’ worth of medication supplies had been sent to Parachinar.
However, local activist Shahid Kazmi blasted the administration for not resolving the conflict and reopening Kurram’s roadways.
He claimed that the lack of firewood and other supplies is causing elderly people and defenseless youngsters to suffer from the bitter cold.
He told Dawn that the KP chief minister’s chopper could not deliver enough medications to meet the demands of the people who are essentially “under siege” in Upper Kurram.
All pharmacies were out of powdered milk, so Wajid Khan, a father of two-month-old twins from Lower Kurram, was unable to purchase it for his children.
Resuming peace efforts
Kurram Deputy Commissioner Javed Mehsud announced that the grand jirga, which mediated a ceasefire after fatal violence, had started its work.
The jirga was trying to restore the roads and address people’s worries.
Road closures in Upper Kurram left thousands of residents “besieged for more than 70 days,” according to Ali Hadi Irfani, Kurram MPA.
There may be a “human tragedy” if the government does not take immediate action to address this problem.
According to Mr. Irfani, the government should open the Parachinar Road right away and guarantee traveler security if it was sincere about preserving people’s lives and property.
The parliamentarians also demanded that the Pakistan-Afghan border be opened immediately.
