46 dead Afghans found on truck

Pakistani and Afghan officials were Sunday preparing to send home the bodies of 46 Afghans found crammed into a truck container believed to have been bound for Iran.

Pakistani and Afghan officials were Sunday preparing to send home the bodies of 46 Afghans found crammed into a truck container believed to have been bound for Iran.

HT Image

The container carrying around 110 people was found about 20 kilometres south of Quetta, capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province which borders Afghanistan and Iran, police said.

“The death toll is 46,” police official Ghulam Dastagir told AFP from the southwestern province after the bodies were found Saturday. “(Another) 45 people were unconscious and have been admitted to hospital,” the official added.

The investigation into the matter had been handed over to Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which deals with immigration matters. “”According to initial investigations the survivors have told us that they boarded the container at Chaman border and had to come to Quetta for onward journey to Iran,” FIA director Shahab Azeem told AFP.