Peshawar: Denmark on Tuesday said it will provide
USD 28 million in aid to Pakistan for rebuilding schools and
infrastructure destroyed by fighting in militancy-affected
Malakand area and tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
The Danish government has decided to increase development
assistance to Pakistan to support early recovery and
reconstruction work in areas affected by terrorism and
militancy, said the country's Development Cooperation Minister
Ulla Tornaes.
"I came here to show my government's support to Pakistan
in the war against terror and we are united to fight this war
together," Tornaes told the media during a visit to a camp set
up at Jalozai in Noshwera district for people displaced by
military operations against the Taliban.
The aid provided by Denmark will be spent in
militancy-affected areas of the North West Frontier Province
and the tribal belt.
Denmark is primarily working with UNICEF so that schools
damaged by militancy and terrorism can be reconstructed and
reopened to provide a congenial atmosphere to children to get
education, which is very imperative for economic development,
Tornaes said.
She said Denmark was the first country that worked to set
up a multi-donor trust fund with assistance from the World
Bank to help people displaced by the fighting.
Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the army's Special
Support Group that is involved in rehabilitating the displaced
people, said about 38,000 displaced families of South
Waziristan had been accommodated in relief camps.
He said he was hopeful that the process for their
return will start in March-April.
The military operation in South Waziristan has been
"very successful with very minimum damages" while the
operation in Khyber Agency has almost ended, Ahmed claimed.
Civic services will be restored before the repatriation
process begins, he said.
Ahmed said the displaced people in the Jalozai camp will
start returning to their homes after an assessment of damage
is done and the security situation in their respective areas
improves.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 19:02