New findings on Harirud mass-drowning of Afghan workers; who were victims?

On May 02, some cellphone images leaked to local media outlets showed corpses of Afghan migrants who were illegally crossing into Iran. The migrants who had survived told reporters that there were over 50 Afghan migrants who were caught, beaten and thrown into Harirud River by Iran’s border guard after they crossed into Iran’s territory. According to initial reports, five Afghan migrants who were thrown into river were found dead, 18 are still missing. The Afghan government has tasked a fact-finding committee to probe the case in a joint investigation with Iranian officials.  

New reports show that five dead bodies of the Afghan migrants, who were allegedly drown into a river by the Iranian Border Guard, have been taken to hospital in Herat for postmortem study. Most victims are young and under 23. They are from western Herat and the northwestern Faryab provinces of Afghanistan.