KP govt to relocate three refugee camps in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, with the financial assistance of Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron), would relocate three Afghan refugees' camps to clear the way for Hazara motorway being built under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project in the district.

Official sources said that the provincial government, through the Commissionerate Afghan Refugees in Peshawar, had taken up the issue of shifting the camps with Safron as they were located on route of the Hazara motorway.

The Safron, the sources added, had agreed that the refugee camps in Khaki, Sheikhabad and Ichrian would be relocated to somewhere else in the district. Currently, a total of 3,889 refugee families, comprising 22748 individuals, live in the three camps.

The Khaki Afghan refugees' camp, according to official records, has been hosting as many as 1178 families, Sheikhabad camp houses 1031 families and Ichrian camp 1079 families.

The sources said that relocation process of Afghan refugees' camps would be started by July 20 next and the entire cost would be borne by Safron Ministry for acquisition of land and building makeshift infrastructure there.

Work on Hassanabdal-Thankot motorway being built under CPEC is in progress and these camps were coming either directly in its way or were at a little distance from it but the federal government wanted to get rid of all such residential areas.

A graveyard, located near the Sheikhabad refugee camp, has been recently relocated to another place by shifting the bodies to a new site.