HT DIGITAL
GUWAHATI, AUGUST 20: A devastating traffic accident in western Afghanistan has killed 73 people, including 17 children, most of them Afghan migrants recently deported from Iran, a Taliban official confirmed.
The accident took place in Herat province on Tuesday evening when the bus en route to Kabul hit a truck and a motorcycle, causing a fire that spread to the bus, according to Ahmadullah Mottaqi, Taliban’s information and culture director in Herat. All the occupants of the bus died, as well as two individuals from the other vehicles.
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Provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi stated that the passengers were Afghan migrants who had boarded the bus in Islam Qala, a border town. Police accounts held the bus driver responsible for the tragedy by speeding and negligence.
Traffic accidents are prevalent in Afghanistan, as decades of conflict have left roads in disrepair and adherence to driving laws still in infancy.
The tragedy coincides with a steep increase in deportations of illegal Afghans from Iran. Millions of Afghans have fled to Iran and Pakistan since the 1970s—initially for the Soviet occupation in 1979 and again after the Taliban seized power again in 2021. Afghan migrants in Iran frequently experience institutionalized discrimination and increasing hostility.
Iran previously gave undocumented Afghans until July to leave voluntarily. But with its recent war with Israel in June, Tehran started forcing out hundreds of thousands by claiming national security threats. The Iranian government is accused by critics of scapegoating Afghans to deflect blame for not stopping Israeli attacks.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 1.5 million Afghans have departed Iran since January, including families who had resided there for generations. Afghanistan, which is already under pressure from Taliban control and coping with returnees from Pakistan, has the resources to take in the sheer number of deportees, experts say.
