Iran's Death Crimes Spark Protests in Afghanistan

AFP,

Around a thousand protesters took to the streets of three main Afghanistan cities on Saturday to protest against the alleged execution of Afghan citizens by Iran.

The biggest rally was in western Herat, Afghanistan’s second city, where about a thousand people marched in the centre of town carrying banners with anti-Iran slogans, an AFP correspondent said.

More than a hundred people gathered in the capital Kabul, while there was also a demonstration in Mazar-e-Sharif, the main city in the country’s north.

The protesters, chanting death slogans to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for an end to the executions of Afghans as well as Iranians by Tehran.

The protesters did nit give details on any specific executions they were protesting against.

No Iranian sources or officials commented on the execution reports.

“We demand the Iranian regime immediately stops the execution of Afghans and Iranian,” said 23-year-old Massoud, a resident of Herat.

“If Afghan citizens commit a crime, they should be tried in Afghanistan,” Ahmad Shoaib, a protester in the city of Mazar-e- Sharif, told AFP.

Several anti-Iranian demonstrations have taken place in Afghanistan recently after Iran blocked 1,600 fuel tankers from entering the country in early December, causing the fuel prices to soar.

Afghan officials said at the time Tehran had expressed concern that the tankers were going to be used to supply NATO forces fighting a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

About 400 tankers have been allowed to cross into Afghanistan after Iran partly opened its border on January 18, Afghan deputy Commerce minister, Mohammad Sharif Sharifi, told AFP. “But the border is still not fully open,” he added.