'Evidence suggests Afghan migrants drowned by Iranian guards'

Kabul, May 15 (IANS) The findings of an Afghan government task force have showed that bodies of migrants which were found in a river, were allegedly drowned by the Iranian border police, it was reported.On Thursday, Abdul Hamid Tahmasi, the head of the government's 10-member task team, said that 13 bodies from a 46-member Afghan migrants group who were on their way to Iran illegally had been discovered, TOLO News reported. "Two more bodies have been found (on Thursda). We had 17 people missing on the list, but four of them were the smugglers who were transferring migrants on other side of the border. Thirteen people were the ordinary men," said Tahmasi.According to Tahmasi, a similar drowning incident took place with another six-member group of Afghan migrants."They were part of a six member group who had been expelled from the same route. In the investigations, these six people said that they were not part of the 46 member group of migrants. But we found that there was a similar incident," said Tahmasi.On May 8, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani tasked the team to probe reports of the drowning of dozens of Afghan migrants by Iranian border security forces, reports TOLO News.Over 50 Afghan migrants were trying to cross the border when they were "tortured and drowned" in the Harirud river by Iranian guards, according to witnesses.Last week, an Afghan official said that so far 16 of the Afghan nationals had been rescued, 18 to 20 are missing, and 16 bodies had been found. On Thursday, the body count rose to 34.
--IANS ksk/