PESHAWAR, June 14: The Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR) is preparing a contingency plan to settle thousands of refugees from the South Waziristan tribal region to be relocated to in Tank district of Dera Ismail Khan division, officials said on Monday.

The Afghan refugees, who were ordered by the tribal administration on Friday to leave the South Waziristan region within 72 hours, have already started moving out of the area, officials said.

The deadline expired on Monday. Commissioner CAR Jamshedul Hassan told Dawn here on Monday that the displaced families would be resettled at Dabara in Tank district where emergency relief centres had been established.

The Commissionerate has also sought assistance from the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other NGOs for the resettlement of the Afghan refugees.

"We discussed the situation with the senior officials of the UN refugee agency and they are very positive", Mr Hassan said, adding that the government would utilise all available resources to facilitate the refugees.

The commissioner said that he along with the UNHCR officials would visit the new site on Tuesday to assess the situation. After launching the operation against foreign militants and their local sympathisers the administration in the South Waziristan has given more than 5,343 Afghan refugee families (42,024 individuals) a 72-hour deadline to vacate their houses and move to other places.

Officials said that the government had issued directives to the refugees to leave the area on account of security reasons and vowed that the deadline would not be extended. "This is a standing order and the refugees will have to vacate their houses", an official said.

During previous military action about 200 refugee families were evacuated from Azam Warsak, South Waziristan region and they were relocated to Dabara area adjacent to South Waziristan.

Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees officials said that the issue had been taken up with the ministry of State and Frontier Regions and requested it to provide funds for the resettlement of the refugees at Dabara.

The Commissionerate dispatched six trucks carrying 200 tents, blankets and other relief goods to the new site and also set up a medical centre. Apart from this a team of field workers has been sent to the area to help the displaced families.