KABUL, June 8: The dumping at the Pakistan border of 20 bodies of suspected Taliban killed fighting Afghan pro-government troops has heightened the fears of refugees hoping to return to Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency said on Sunday.

“UNHCR is concerned about the situation around the southern border with Pakistan, especially following the dramatic security operation last week where it basically sent a lot of messages to our Afghan refugees that things were not yet safe inside Afghanistan,” UNHCR spokeswoman Maki Shinohara told reporters at a press conference.

“The dumping of some 20 bodies of alleged extremists at the Chaman waiting area amid the Afghan refugee settlement has heightened the sense of insecurity among the refugees. The elders at Chaman have expressed fears of returning to Afghanistan, saying that it is not yet safe,” she said.

Chaman waiting area, just inside Pakistan northwest of Quetta city, is home to about 18,600 Afghan refugees since it was formed at the end of 2001 when the borders were closed.

Afghan authorities dumped the bodies in the Chaman area after a battle Wednesday in southeast Kandahar province in which 40 suspected Taliban were killed. The Afghans claimed the dead were Pakistanis, which Pakistan denied. Afghan authorities later retrieved the bodies for burial.

The dumping of the bodies comes after Kabul, Islamabad and the UNHCR last month finally agreed at a tripartite meeting to close the Chaman refugee site by July and relocate the refugees away from the border.—AFP