Return to Swat: 'Alone in the village'

Shaukat Ali: Shops are destroyed and shutters scattered on the ground

The Pakistani government has started to return home some of the two million people displaced by the recent army offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley.

Shaukat Ali made his own way back to his home village near the city of Mingora on Sunday.

Here he describes the changes he found.

There is no security personnel in our village and we are a bit worried, because we are on our own.

Some of the crops are destroyed and most of the peach trees are left with no fruit on them Shaukat Ali

There was a lot of security on the way. We came across 17, 18 checkpoints where we were asked to show our identification to make sure we belong to this area.

We saw many shops destroyed when we crossed Mingora. The shutters were scattered on the roads and there were bullet holes on the walls.

The roads were blocked for security purposes, so that people can be checked and so that nobody can drive through them. I saw about about 10 petrol bombs, which were destroyed.

I have a shop in the Addasi market in Mingora and I wanted to go and see it. But the security personnel told me I could go either to the shop, or my home, but not both. So we headed towards our village.

My village is away from the city and there is no apparent destruction there. There is no damage to my house.

But there are no shops, so we have to go shopping in the city.

The only things we have are our farms and orchards. But some of the crops are destroyed and most of the peach trees are left with no fruit on them.

When we fled Swat, we went to the city of Attock in Punjab province, right on the border with the North West Frontier Province. There were no IDP camps so we had to rent a house for 5,000 rupees ($ 61) a month. When we ran out money and couldn't pay the rent, we had to leave the house.

I tried to get some compensation and aid from the government, but I got no help in the end.

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