QUETTA March 4: The United Nations refugee agency has dispatched two convoys of trucks carrying 1000 tents to provide emergency shelter to Afghan refugees in the Loralai and Muslim Bagh areas. Houses of these refugees were destroyed by recent heavy rain in Balochistan.

In a statement issued on Friday, the UNHCR stated that five trucks despatched earlier, which carried 500 tents, arrived in Loralai on Thursday night while the second was expected to reach there on Friday.

The statement said that an assessment team that had rushed to the affected area reported heavy damage to the Malgagai camp near Muslim Bagh by mud and water rushing down from the surrounding mountain sides. It said there were about 30,000 refugees in Loralai and 8,000 in Muslim Bagh, adding that the agency was unable to confirm earlier reports of deaths by floods.

The statement said that severe weather had also forced the government of Pakistan to extend until the next week the deadline for completion of the census of Afghan refugees in Balochistan. The census is being carried out with the assistance of UNHCR.