On the eve of International Human Rights Day, hundreds of people in Herat province staged a demonstration in front of Iranian Consulate and demanded the government of Islamic Republic of Iran to hand over the dead of bodies of 13 Afghan youths gunned down by its security forces near Afghan-Iran border. Police had to interfere as some emotional protestors started throwing stones at the consulate.

Iranian forces have been involved in targeting Afghans who try cross the border line between Afghanistan and Iran, mostly illegally. Those Afghans do not know that the punishment of crossing into an Islamic country - that is not only a close neighbor but also calls itself a supporting friend of Afghanistan - is their death or permanent disability. Had their own country provided them job and security, they would never attempt to leave it for another country where the authorities treat them extremely inhumanely and whose hands never shake while shooting at them.

Misery doubles when the relatives and friends of Afghans who are either killed by Iranian security guards at the border or hanged by Iranian authorities, have to wait impatiently for weeks or even months to receive dead bodies of their beloved ones. Inside or outside Afghanistan, Afghans have suffered much throughout the three decades of war.

But as compared to other countries of the world, the condition of Afghan refugees in Iran has been upsetting and disappointing. Some of the irresponsible Iranian authorities have been involved in time to time killings of Afghan refugees. Several Afghans have returned home with abnormal minds and serious psychological problems. They have become so as a result of brutal punishments by Iranian security forces.

Iran keeps Afghan refugees in inhumane conditions in different detention centers that lack arrangements for food, water, medical services and other basic necessities. The stance of Afghan government on the killing and harsh treatment of Afghans in Iran has been discouraging.

Afghan government has hardly objected the Islamic Republic's terrible attitude towards Afghans or its meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. It does not want to annoy Tehran for such 'minor issue.' Protests such as that in Herat signals growing hatred against Iranian government. Iran must respond to legitimate demands of the protestors and take good care that Afghan refugees who have leave their motherland in search of better living in other country must at least be treated humbly.