Hundreds of people staged a second protest at the Iranian embassy in Kabul, condemning the Islamic Republic’s treatment of Afghan prisoners in Iran. Chanting “Death to despotism both in Kabul and Tehran”, protesters demanded that Iran stops the execution of Afghan nationals. Local Afghan sources reported that tomorrow, there will be another protest against the execution of Afghan citizens in Iran in Herat, in the west of Afghanistan. Reportedly, families of the executed Afghans will also attend tomorrow’s protests.
In the meantime, on Thursday, Mohammad Taher Faghiri, spokesman of the Afghan Foreign Ministry, told a press conference that soon a panel of Afghan officials will travel to Iran to inspect the situation of Afghan prisoners. Afghanistan National Coalition Front organized a similar protest this past week following weeks of controversial debates between representatives of Afghanistan parliament and the government about the execution of Afghan nationals in Iran.
According to a group of MPs who recently travelled to Iran, over 5600 Afghans are currently detained in Iran, mostly in connection with drug smuggling charges. About three thousand of them are sentenced to execution. Iran has denied the report and summoned Afghanistan’s charge d’affaires in Tehran to express concern over “suspicious” provocations and “nonconstructive” statements of a number of Afghan officials against Iran. Currently, about 90 thousand legal Afghan immigrants reside in Iran. It is said that there is also over one and half million Afghans residing in Iran without legal status.

source: Radio Zamaneh