Pak finds 46 dead Afghans in truck container
Monday, 6 April 2009
QUETTA, April 5 (AFP): 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, officials said.
The container carrying around 110 people was found about 20 kilometres south of Quetta, capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, police said.
"The death toll is 46," police official Ghulam Dastagir told newsmen 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 investigations of the matter have been handed over the Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which deals with immigration matters.
"We are investigating the matter and have contacted the Afghan consulate in Quetta, who have visited the hospital," FIA director Shahab Azeem told the reporter.
The container carrying around 110 people was found about 20 kilometres south of Quetta, capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, police said.
"The death toll is 46," police official Ghulam Dastagir told newsmen 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 investigations of the matter have been handed over the Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which deals with immigration matters.
"We are investigating the matter and have contacted the Afghan consulate in Quetta, who have visited the hospital," FIA director Shahab Azeem told the reporter.