Pakistan stops demolition work in Afghan camp

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

PIR ALIZAI CAMP, Pakistan May 17 (Reuters) Pakistani security forces stopped demolition of abandoned houses in an Afghan refugee camp today following clashes that killed two people, officials said.

Security forces exchanged fire with refugees yesterday when the residents reluctant to go home resisted the bulldozing of deserted houses as part of a plan to shut down the camp.

Pir Alizai, near the Afghan border in Baluchistan province, is one of the oldest camps for Afghans in Pakistan. It was set up after the Soviet invasion of their country in 1979 but is due to be closed by June 15.

''We have stopped destroying the houses after officials and representatives of the Afghan refugees decided to find a way out through negotiations,'' said police officer, Naseebullah Khan.

''We will try to find a solution acceptable to all.'' The protesting refugees lifted their blockade of the road to the provincial capital and the border town of Chaman.

Pir Alizai, a sprawling settlement of mud houses for thousands of Afghan refugees, is one of two camps Pakistani authorities plan to close by June 15.

Two more will be shut down later this year.

Authorities say some refugee camps have turned into safe havens for Taliban insurgents battling foreign forces in Afghanistan.

According to a census by the UN refugee agency in 2005, some 35,000 Afghan refugees lived in Pir Alizai.

But thousands of Pakistani Pashtuns later moved to the camp, raising its total population to more than 100,000, residents of the camp say.

The UNHCR stopped relief activities in the camp in 2005.

The Pakistani government last week approved a plan for a voluntary and gradual repatriation of about 2.5 million refugees in the next three years, in line with an agreement reached with the UNHCR in 2003.

''We have given them two options; to go back to their country or shift to another camp in Lora Lai,'' UNHCR official Dunya Aslam Khan said, referring to an area in Baluchistan near the Afghan border.

REUTERS SKB RS1523

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