PESHAWAR, April 19: Paramilitary forces moved towards the sprawling Kacha Garhi camp after Afghan refugees ignored the government deadline to vacate the place, sources said.

The government served notices on the Afghan refugees to start vacating the area by April 16.

Refugees of the Kacha Garhi camp told Dawn that the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) entered the camp on Wednesday, amid reports that the government would now force the refugees to vacate the place after the passage of the deadline.

Kacha Garhi is one of the oldest refugee camps in the country which houses over 60,000 registered Afghans. The UN refugee agency and its partners had closed its activities in the camp last year.

The federal Ministry of State and Frontier Region (Safron) has decided to wind up the camp by June 16 and directed refugees to start vacating the place from April 15.

However, elders of the camp are reluctant to vacate the site and sought a three-year extension in the cut-off date.

Haji Dost Mohammad, head of the Kacha Garhi welfare council, said that paramilitary troops had occupied school buildings in the camp and the government had refused to extend the deadline.

He said that they would meet the provincial secretary home here on Friday to discuss the situation.

He said that officials of the Afghan commissionerate had again intimated them to leave the area as soon as possible.

Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir, however, said that the administration had deployed forces for the security of the verification centre of the UNHCR close to the Kacha Garhi camp. He confirmed that elders of the camp had been invited to discuss the evacuation plan.

The government in consultation with the Afghan government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had planned last year to close four camps — two each in Balochistan and the NWFP — this year.

The plan would be started from Kacha Garhi and then the Jalozai camp in Nowshera district would be closed down.

Officials said that inhabitants of the two camps in the province had two options: either to go back to Afghanistan under the UN voluntary repatriation programme or to relocate to Dir and Chitral districts.