The Peshawar Cantonment Board in Pakistan has served a notice on Hindus to vacate about 70 houses occupied by them for over 130 years in the cantonment areas there, media reports said.

The Daily Times quoted a local Hindu leader Ram Lal as saying that the entire land and property was in the name of one Mehar Chand Khanna who had bought it way back in the 19^th century.

The newspaper said the notice was issued last week to the residents of Kali Bari to vacate around 70 houses and a Hindu temple built in 1861.

The Cantonment Board accused the residents of 'occupying the area illegally and encroaching on government land', the daily said.

'The notice was a threat that force would be used if the inhabitants did not meet the deadline,' it quoted the Cantonment Board as saying.

It also quoted a Muslim resident of the Hindu-dominated area, Aslam Siraj, as saying, 'We are worried and do not know where to go if the authorities use force.'

The residents, it said, have also approached President Pervez Musharraf for relief.