Umar Daraz Wazir is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal in North Waziristan, Pakistan. His reporting focuses on militant violence and the challenges of rehabilitating the region after nearly two decades of insurgent violence.
Nearly one million residents of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region are desperate to repatriate to their homeland.
Thousands of displaced families from the North Waziristan tribal district are reluctant to leave school buildings in the nearby districts of Bannu and Lakki Marwat because of high rents and a lack of government aid.
Tens of thousands of civilians who are stuck in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan face chronic food shortages and a lack of services as sporadic fighting between the military and Taliban militants continues.
Civilians in a remote northwestern region of Pakistan have rejected government claims that airstrikes targeting their community are killing militants.
In what is seen as a major embarrassment for Islamabad, thousands of Pakistani tribespeople have now crossed into Afghanistan in the wake of a major Pakistani military offensive launched in their North Waziristan homeland in mid-June.
