PESHAWAR, May 1: The government will hold talks with elders of Kacha Garhi camp on Tuesday to resolve the dispute over its evacuation, sources said.

They said the Afghan refugees chief commissioner would arrive here for the meeting with the elders to convince refugees to leave the site. The NWFP chief secretary would also attend the meeting, they said.

The government had served notices on the inhabitants of the camp to vacate it by April 30, which they refused.

Officials said Kacha Garhi was one of the major refugee settlements in the NWFP and about 10,500 Afghan families had been living there since 1980.

The camp’s settlers have demanded one-year extension in their stay to wind up their businesses and recover their money from locals.

Officials said if the camp’s inhabitants did not vacate it, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its partners would close healthcare units and schools and cut water and electricity supply.

An elder of the camp, Haji Dost Mohammad, said the refugees would not vacate the camp unless the recovery of their invested money was guaranteed.—Bureau Report