ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Pakistan has decided to close down the two Afghan refugee camps in Balochistan by March. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said that the refugee repatriation would begin by March 2007.

“Afghan President Hamid Karzai had assured us during Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s recent visit to Kabul that he is ready to welcome the refugees,” the minister said.He said there were reports that Taliban and Al Qaeda militants tried to enter Pakistan in the guise of Afghan refugees. “We have proofs that some refugees were involved in crimes,” he said.

The minister said that initially the two refugee camps would be kept under strict vigilance.

He said the repatriation of Afghan refugee was one of the main items on the agenda of the tripartite talks being held between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organiation (Nato).

Mr Sherpao said there were over a million Afghan refugees in Balochistan alone.

According to a government figures, there were still over 3.04 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Of them, 81.5 per cent were Pakhtuns, seven per cent Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmens, two per cent were of Baloch origin while one per cent of them were Hazaras.

Government statistics showed that 62 per cent of the refugees were living in the NWFP, 25 per cent in Balochistan, seven per cent in Punjab and four per cent in Sindh.

The report said some 58 per cent of the refugees were living outside camps while 42 per cent lived in UNHCR-assisted camps.