Dead Pakistanis 'were innocent'

[sonz]

Pakistan says 16 of its nationals travelling in Afghanistan were arrested and then killed by Afghan security forces.


A Pakistani embassy spokesman in Kabul told the BBC that the men "were innocent Pakistani civilians".

The Afghan foreign ministry said on Thursday the dead were all "Taleban... from Pakistan".

The Afghan authorities say they are investigating the deaths, reported near the border town of Spin Boldak.

The dispute over the killings comes as relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan over cross-border security have worsened.



The Afghan government has repeatedly accused Pakistan of failing to prevent Taleban militants from taking refuge on its territory, while the Pakistani authorities have criticised the quality of Afghan intelligence.

Wave of anger

Tens of thousands of people came out on the streets in the border town of Chaman as the bodies of 14 of those killed were taken there. Eight of the dead were residents of Chaman.


Officials say the other bodies were being sent to their respective towns for proper burials.
Journalists in Chaman say the incident has sent a wave of anger both among local Islamist and Pashtun nationalists.

Many are openly accusing the Afghan security forces of murdering innocent Pakistani nationals in cold blood and later justifying the act by calling them Taleban fighters.

Senior officials in Islamabad say it has now been established beyond doubt that all those killed were Pakistani citizens and that they were killed by the Afghan security forces.

But the BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says no-one knows what exactly happened across the border in Spin Boldak on Wednesday.
Accounts rejected

On Wednesday an Afghan border security commander said at least 15 Taleban fighters near the border with Pakistan had been killed by Afghan forces.

On Thursday, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Naved Ahmed Mohaz stood by that version of events.

"They were Taleban who crossed the border from Pakistan and wanted to kill in a terrorist operation," he told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul.
That account has already been rejected by Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

He is widely reported in the Pakistani media as saying that the men had gone to Afghanistan to celebrate the Afghan New Year in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif: "They were not Taleban."

On Thursday, the Pakistan embassy in Kabul went further.
"They were innocent Pakistani civilians, ordinary common Pakistanis who had gone to Mazar-e-Sharif to celebrate the Nohrouz [New Year] festival," spokesman Muhammad Naiam told our correspondent.
On their return journey, they were arrested and then killed "in a staged encounter", Mr Naiam said.

He said the Pakistani government had protested in the strongest terms with the Afghan government.

Afghanistan's ambassador in Islamabad was summoned to Pakistan's foreign ministry on Thursday, even though it is a public holiday in Pakistan.
'Baseless accusation'

Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Naveed Moez has dismissed the Pakistani version of events.

"This is a baseless accusation which we reject," he told the BBC.
There were contradictory accounts of how the men died when news of the incident first emerged on Wednesday.

Afghan frontier security commander Abdul Razak said the men had been killed in a clash near Spin Boldak.

But later, an Afghan defence ministry spokesman, Gen Zaher Azimi, told the BBC that there had been no Afghan army operation in the area in "the past 24 hours".

One senior provincial official told the Associated Press news agency that the victims had been "killed in cold blood because of a tribal conflict". Reports say the dead were all from the Noorzai tribe, a sub-tribe of the Pashtuns who live on both sides of the border.