Border trespassers: Two Pakistanis shot dead by Iranian guards

QUETTA:

Iranian security forces shot and killed two alleged Pakistani trespassers in the Taftan border area of Chagai district on Saturday.

“I’ve received information that two Pakistani citizens were shot dead by Iranian border guards when the pair allegedly tried to cross into Iranian territory illegally,” Deputy Commissioner Saifullah Kitheran told The Express Tribune.

“I’ve asked the local tehsildar to talk to Iranian officials. I cannot confirm whether the killings took place on our or on the Iranian side of the border.”

Bodies of the two men were buried in Taftan. Officials didn’t identify them. Iranian border guards, however, alleged that they were drug traffickers – a claim disputed by local residents who said they were shepherds.

Iranian authorities stepped up security along the border with Pakistan following the killing of over a dozen Iranian border guards in an ambush in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2013.