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- Swat Refugees
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- Jessica Partnow
Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were already fleeing the Swat Valley before the latest fighting broke out.
Sher Ali Khan, 55, is one of them. He fled his home in a village in the Swat Valley nine months ago. Sher Ali Khan now lives in a rented house in Landhi, a largely Pashtun settlement on the outskirts of Karachi.
Khan, his wife, and 13 children have been crowded into a three-room house, anxiously awaiting the day they feel it's safe enough to return home. Khan discusses his situation with reporter Jessica Partnow.
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Piece Description
Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were already fleeing the Swat Valley before the latest fighting broke out.
Sher Ali Khan, 55, is one of them. He fled his home in a village in the Swat Valley nine months ago. Sher Ali Khan now lives in a rented house in Landhi, a largely Pashtun settlement on the outskirts of Karachi.
Khan, his wife, and 13 children have been crowded into a three-room house, anxiously awaiting the day they feel it's safe enough to return home. Khan discusses his situation with reporter Jessica Partnow.
Broadcast History
Produced for the World Vision Report.
Transcript
Act 1: there was already fighting going on and we were trying to wait it out. But then my wife got sick and we couldn’t get treatment there. We decided that if we had to leave, we should all stick together.
Act2- In Swat I owned a lot of farm land; I had cattle and fruit orchards. I am so upset to have lost it all. When I was there my cattle were fine and my farmland was fine, but we had to leave to save all our lives. We assume it’s all gone, but we haven’t gotten any news of what’s happened.
Act 3: We’re mentally tortured more than anything else. We had 3 lakh rupees ($4,000) when we came but it’s almost gone now. Financially, we’re in trouble. But mostly I’m worried that we can’t go back home because of the violence. And here in Karachi they call us terrorists. So where will I go in the future? That’s what troubles me the most. Right now we’re managing, but being branded as terr...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were already fleeing the Swat Valley before the latest fighting broke out.
Sher Ali Khan, 55, is one of them. He fled his home in a village in the Swat Valley nine months ago. Sher Ali Khan now lives in a rented house in Landhi, a largely Pashtun settlement on the outskirts of Karachi.
Khan, his wife, and 13 children have been crowded into a three-room house, anxiously awaiting the day they feel it's safe enough to return home. Khan discusses his situation with reporter Jessica Partnow.
OUTRO:Funding for this report was provided by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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