23 illegal Afghan migrants drowned by Iranian border guards

Written by Angella Semu

At least 23 Afghan migrants who were trying to cross the border illegally using the Afghan-Ira-Turkmenistan border in Herat province have been killed by Iranian troops.

Health officials in Herat confirmed about received the bodies that had been drowned in the Iran border.

A report by Afghanistan Times revealed that on Saturday 57 Afghans were arrested by Iranian forces and thrown the into the Harirod River after beating them up.

In an interview with one of the survivors, Abdul Wahed, 20, he disclosed that the guards used pipes when hitting them telling them to never come back to Iran while pushing them into the river.

When asked to comment on the matter, Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan refused to comment anything on the matter but promised to investigate further.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister asked for a thorough investigation into the matter.

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).