Pakistan police on Tuesday charged three Iranian border guards with the murder of a Pakistani man shot dead on Sunday in a cross-border attack in the country’s southwest. The three guards were held late Sunday in Balochistan along the Iranian border after they allegedly crossed the frontier and shot at a car, killing a Pakistani national. Police said they had charged the Iranians following a written complaint from the father of the victim. “We have registered a murder case against the three Iranians and will present them in court,” said Abdul Malik, officer in charge of the Mazan Sar Mashkail area, where the three were arrested.
A brother of the victim was also wounded by gunshots in the incident, police said. The Iranians reached the area in Washuk district, three kilometres inside Pakistan, where they opened fire on a vehicle they were chasing, according to officials in the insurgent-hit province. Mazan Sar Mashkail is around 600 kilometres southwest of Quetta. Pakistani officials said the Iranian guards were trying to take both Pakistani nationals back into Iran. Malik said the three Iranians were in the custody of the Frontier Corps and a request has been sent to hand them over to police.
‘Unintentional crossing’: Meanwhile, the commander of Iran’s police border guard said the Iranian border guards had “unintentionally” entered Pakistan in pursuit of drug traffickers. “Three Iranian border guards pursued the drug traffickers and unintentionally and due to darkness entered Pakistani territory and were arrested by Pakistani forces,” Hossein Zolfaqari was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. Two smugglers were killed in the incident and another was wounded, he said, without giving their nationalities. He said 500 kilogrammes of drugs were seized. Zolfaqari denied any Pakistani civilian was killed in the incident.
Zolfaqari said a delegation of Iranian border guards had spoken with Pakistani officials asking for the release of their colleagues and that more talks were scheduled. He noted that the border is poorly marked. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, asked about the incident, told reporters on Tuesday: “We do not have precise details. Usually such incidents do occur in the borders but it will be solved with discussion by both sides.” Iranian officials say 3,500 members of their security forces have been killed in clashes with traffickers over the past 30 years, mainly in areas bordering Afghanistan or Pakistan.
