Kabul: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan said that an Iranian delegation arrived in Kabul on Tuesday to discuss the incident of Afghan migrants’ torturing by the country’s border guards on the borderline with Afghanistan.

The ministry in a statement said that the delegation was led by the deputy foreign minister of Iran, Mohsin Bahawand, who has held talks with the Afghan minister of foreign, Mohammad Haneef Atmar over the evidence and documents of the incident.

The delegation brought a batch of medical instruments and supplies to combat the pandemic covid-19 in Afghanistan, read the statement.

Appreciating Tehran’s donation to Afghanistan, Atmar called on Tehran to pay serious attention and make all-out efforts to probe the incident.

Atmar said that the goal of the investigation is to find out the truth and legally approach the perpetrators to make essential measures to avoid such incidents in the future that can affect the relations of the two countries.

The Iranian delegation has condemned the event, saying that such an incident is an unacceptable action for the government and the people of Iran.

Bahawand said that Tehran is committed to probe the incident jointly with the Afghan delegation to pave the ground for the justice.

According to the statement, both sides emphasized that the perpetrators should be held accountable within a mutual structure to strengthen the ties of the two neighboring countries.

Based earlier on reports the Iranian border forces have tortured and then thrown into the river over 50 Afghan migrants who were trying to illegally cross the border for daily vague.

Tehran has then denied the involvements of its border police in the incident, saying that the issue has been misrepresented by the Afghan media outlets. But the Afghan government has formed a delegation to probe the issue with throughout briefing the local officials and residents of the western Herat province.

In accordance to the Afghan delegation, led by Chief of Army Staff, Hamid Tahmasi, at least 46 Afghan migrants were thrown into the river, from whom 17 people have gone disappeared, 12 people drowned and 17 others were rescued.

The mistreatment of the Iran border guards with the Afghan migrants has posed national and international reactions.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said that he was horrified with the conduct of Iranian police against the Afghan migrants and that the issue should be investigated to held the perpetrators accountable.

http://www.afghanistantimes.af/afghan-iranian-officials-discuss-afghan-migrants-drowning-incident/