Afghanistan accuses Iran of holding 21 migrant workers

PanARMENIAN.Net - Afghanistan has accused Iran of holding as many as 21 migrant Afghan workers following a border shooting incident over the weekend and has filed a formal complaint to Tehran, an official said Sunday, May 12, AP reported.

According to local accounts, Iranian border guards opened fire on the Afghan laborers on Friday as they tried to cross the boundary illegally looking for work, said Abdul Rahman Zhawandai, a spokesman for the provincial governor in the northwestern Farah province.

Several wounded laborers were brought to a district hospital in Farah, Zhawandai said. Some of them said four of their compatriots were killed in the shooting and 21 were taken by the Iranian guards, the official said.

But details remained sketchy and the laborers' testimonies conflicted, Zhawandai added.

In Kabul, Afghanistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Janan Mosazai, told reporters that a complaint was lodged Saturday with Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan.

"We are following this issue very seriously through our embassy in Tehran," said Mosazai. He added that while the migrants were trying to enter Iran illegally, "the reaction of Iran should have been a civilian reaction, not a military" one - a reference to the shooting.

In Tehran, Iran's chief of border guards, Gen. Hamid Sharafi, denied there was any shooting at Afghan migrants, according to Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency.

"Such a report is not right. We do not confirm it based on our investigations," Sharafi was quoted as saying.

Protests over the incident erupted on Sunday, with dozens of local residents rallying in the streets of the provincial capital, also named Farah, shouting anti-Iranian slogans.