Turkey provides $10 million to displaced Pakistanis

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Turkey will provide $10 million for to help rehabilitate Pakistanis displaced by an ongoing military operation in the country’s northwestern tribal region and flooding in 2014, the embassy in Islamabad said Tuesday.

An agreement was signed between Ambassador Sadik Babur Girgin and Economic Affairs Secretary Tariq Mahmood in the capital, the embassy said in a statement.

Under the agreement, $5 million will be provided for tribespeople displaced by an operation launched in 2014 against militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border.

The operation, which ousted Taliban from the restive region, also displaced more than a million people, mainly from North Waziristan, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions.

Another $5 million, according to the statement, will be used to rehabilitate the victims of the 2014 floods in the north of the country.

"The two brother countries have strong historical ties to each area, and Pakistan and Turkey have stood next to each other in difficult times," the statement said.