PESHAWAR, April 21: Afghan refugees on Friday threatened to torch their vehicles and businesses if the government evicted them from the Kacha Garhi Refugee Camp after the April 30 deadline.

A delegation of the Afghan refugees is to meet federal Minister for State and Frontier Regions (Safron) Yar Mohammad Rind on Saturday to request him to allow them to stay in the country for one more year. The government had asked them to vacate the Jalozai and Kacha Garhi refugee camps by April 30.

Haji Dost Mohammad, chief of the Islahi Committee in Kacha Garhi refugee camp, accused Afghan Commissioner Sahabzada Anis of forcing the refugee families off the land where they had been living for 28 years.

He said that their delegation was not allowed to meet UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner Wendy J. Chamberlain when she visited a repatriation centre on Thursday.

“The Afghan commissioner did not allow us to meet the deputy high commissioner of the UNHCR when we tried to approach her to inform her about the refugees’ problems since they were given the deadline to leave the camps,” Haji Dost said.

Afghan refugees, he said, were left with no other option but to meet federal Minister for Safron Yar Mohammad Rind.

“We will try to meet him (the minister) in Islamabad on Saturday before taking any further step,” he said, adding: “We are also meeting Afghan Commissioner Sahabzada Anis on Monday, which will clarify the situation.”

Currently, there are 54,005 people living in the Kacha Garhi Refugee Camp. These people, who belong to 34,810 families, have been running about 2,500 shops as well as other businesses.

He said that the time given to them for vacating the camps was inadequate, adding that they should be given enough time to wind up their businesses in Pakistan.

“You cannot just ask people, who have been living here for the past 28 years, to leave their homes and businesses, which they had built from scratch,” head of the Afghan committee said.

He said Afghan refugees were running more than 1,500 vehicles, including taxis, rickshaws and trucks, adding that these vehicles had Pakistani registeration and could not be run inside Afghanistan, he said.

He said: “We are requesting the Pakistan government to allow us to stay one more year so that we can wrap up our activities in Pakistan,” he said, adding: “The one-year period will help us to rebuild our homes in Afghanistan before returning there.”

“We cannot resist Pakistan government but we will set our vehicles on fire in protest if the government forced us to vacate our homes,” he said.

An official of the district administration office of the Afghan refugees said that so for no decision had been taken to forcibly evict the refugees.

He said that the government had not made it clear how to deal with the refugees if they refused to vacate their camp after the expiry of the deadline. — PPI