Landmines on Iran-Pakistan border kill five suspected drug smugglers

Published December 21st, 2002 - 02:00 GMT
Al Bawaba
Al Bawaba

Five people were killed and 11 wounded in a remote area of southeastern Iran when their vehicles hit landmines laid to deter drug smugglers along the border with Pakistan, officials said Friday. 

 

The dead included three Afghans, one Pakistani and a fifth person, who has not yet been identified, an official in Pakistan's Kech district said. 

 

"The incident took place near the border, but on the Iranian side," as the two trucks exploded some three kilometers before they would have entered Pakistan, district official Bashir Baloch told AFP. 

 

"The Iranian authorities laid landmines to keep the drug traffickers away," he expressed. "My officers ... on the border said the victims were almost certainly drug smugglers as normal people do not use these routes." 

 

The injured were taken to hospital in the Iranian town of Pishki for medical treatment, he added. (Albawaba.com) 

© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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