Senators ask govt to shut Iranian charities

KABUL.

The six Afghans were residents of northern Takhar province and they had been working in the neighbouring country as labourers, according to officials in Takhar. The officials also say the corpses have not been handed over into Afghan  custody so far.

Nisar Ahmad Haris, a lawmaker from Kabul, told the upper house that the six Afghans were hanged till death two days ago in Isfahan city of Iran on drug smuggling charges.

He claimed Tehran had been executing innocent Afghans after their trials behind closed doors and in the absence of defence lawyers, something he said was aimed at earning a bad name to the Afghans.

Haris alleged Iran had opened a number of offices in several provinces in the name of charitable organisations for espionage purposes.

The lawmaker asked the government to close these Iranian offices and should not keep silence on Afghans’ executions in Iran.

His colleague from central Parwan province, Hayatullah Parwani, said Iran had long been creating problems for Afghanistan under various pretexts.

Chairman Fazl Hadi Muslimyar strongly condemned the execution of Afghans in Iran and called for offices of Iranian charity organisations to be closed, a call endorsed by lawmakers by raising green cards.

Over the past few years, hundreds of Afghans have been detained and executed on drug smuggling charges in Iran.

Most of the victims belonged to western provinces, including Heart, Farah, Nimroz and Takhar.

However, neither Afghan nor Iranian sources have so far confirmed the exact number of Afghans on death row in the neighbouring country, but civil society activists say about 2000 Afghans have been sentenced to death.

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