The Taliban say they are investigating reports of Afghan casualties on the Iran border

[October 17, 2024]  ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban said Thursday they are investigating reports of Afghan casualties on the Iran border. It’s their first acknowledgement of the alleged killing and wounding of Afghan nationals by Iranian security forces in an attack Sunday. They previously described the reports as rumors.

Iran has denied any shooting took place near Saravan, a town in the country’s restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

However, anti-Afghan migrant rhetoric has escalated in Iran in recent months as Western sanctions grind down its economy, with the country’s police chief saying some 2 million migrants would be deported in the next six months.

HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people that is broadly focused on Iran, has issued a series of reports about the shooting, citing two unidentified witnesses and others as claiming a death toll of at least dozens, with more wounded. It published images of what appeared to be several corpses and others with gunshot wounds. HalVash alleged that Iranian security forces used both firearms and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack.

Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said a high-ranking delegation was investigating the reported incident.

The delegation includes the deputy interior minister for security and representatives of different ministries, including defense and the General Intelligence Directorate.

“The delegation has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting an exhaustive and meticulous investigation into the matter,” Mujahid wrote on the social media platform X. “Since its assignment, the delegation has worked relentlessly to ascertain the facts. It is committed to providing clarity on this issue to the public at the earliest opportunity.”

The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm the attack. Verifying information remains difficult in Sistan and Baluchistan, which for decades has been home to a cross-border insurgency and violence involving heroin traffickers.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan called for a thorough and transparent investigation into the alleged incident. It said the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers were protected by international law.

“UNAMA expresses its deep concern over disturbing reports of an incident on 14 to 15 October in Sistan province, Sarbaz district, Kala Gan border area of Iran, with allegations that a large group of Afghan migrants were opened fire on, resulting in deaths and injuries,” the mission said.

On Wednesday, Iran began to push back on the reports. Gen. Reza Shojaei, a commander of the provincial border guard, called the reports of a shooting “basically false.” Hassan Kazemi Ghomi, the Iranian president’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs, also called the claims “not true” on X and blamed the story’s spread on “the frenzy of the lying media.”

Officials from Afghanistan's former Western-backed government said Iran must bring the perpetrators to justice.

Large numbers of Afghans have called Iran home for decades, from the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan through the first rule of the Taliban, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the 2021 Taliban takeover. The United Nations' refugee agency estimates 3.8 million displaced people live in Iran, the vast majority of them Afghans. Some in Iran suggest the number of Afghans is even higher.

Police and authorities are signaling they want to deport more Afghans. Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan earlier this month said the country planned to deport 2 million undocumented migrants in the next six months, though he stopped short of identifying them as Afghans. He said some 500,000 already had been deported.

“We cannot allow some individuals to enter the country illegally, reside, and work,” he said. “Citizens and business owners should know that employing these individuals and housing illegal foreign nationals is a crime.”

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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