The results of the investigation by the Independent Human Rights Committee of Afghanistan shows that among the Afghan immigrants that were drowned by Iranian border guards in Hari River, there was at least one 12-year-old child.

This independent organization’s report stated that so far 27 bodies of victims have been found. But based on the official reports, out of 46 Afghan immigrants that “the Iranian border guards threw into the river after torture and abuse,” 21 have survived, with 10 dead bodies found and 15 still missing.

The surviving immigrants have told the Human Rights Committee that they passed the border at 9:00 pm and were arrested at 2:00 am by Iranian border guards and they were then transferred to a border police headquarters. According to the survivors, 50 to 55 Afghan immigrants were taken to the headquarters.

The survivors went on to say that after being held in jail, the next day the police forces beat up the immigrants and forced them to gather weeds around the headquarters. Then at 2:00 pm, they took 20000 tomans from each immigrant and put them on the bus to return them across the border. They dropped them off by the Hari River and forced them to pass the river.

“The immigrants resisted at first, by the Iranian border guards forced them into the river by beating and shooting bullets near them,” the report continues.

They said that eight immigrants succeeded in getting across the river, and the rest either disappeared or drowned. The survivors pulled the bodies of six drowned victims out of the water.