Pakistan unsure on Iran soldiers

QUETTA, Pakistan

Iranian soldiers shout anti-U.S. slogans during an Eid al-Adha prayer in Tehran. REUTERS photo

Pakistani authorities have yet to decide what to do with three Iranian border guards detained for allegedly crossing into southwestern Pakistan and killing a man, a government official said Monday.

The incident occurred Jan. 1 in the Mazah Sar area of Baluchistan province, a desolate, unpopulated region where the border is not clearly marked. They allegedly shot and killed one man and wounded another who local authorities said were smugglers. Aalam Farez, a senior government official in Washuk district, where Mazah Sar is located, said the Iranians have admitted to inadvertently crossing into Pakistan while chasing a vehicle.

They accidentally shot the two men when they fired on the vehicle they were chasing, said Farez. Pakistani border personnel then chased the Iranians back across the border, seized the two men who had been shot and detained the three Iranian guards, Pakistani officials have said. Meanwhile, NATO’s spokesman said the coalition wants to get relations with Pakistan back on track “as quickly as possible” to reopen its key supply route for foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan. Pakistan closed its main trading route to Afghanistan in November following a deadly air strike by the alliance force that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the border.