KABUL - Meshrano Jirga -- or upper house of parliament -- on Tuesday asked the government to break its silence on the execution of Afghan citizens in neighbouring Iran.

More than a dozen Afghans recently went missing after crossing into Iran, but angry residents later staged a protest in western Herat province against their killing by Iranian police.

The protestors, demanding the victims' bodies be handed over to their families, pelted the Iranian Consulate in Herat City with stones.

A seNATOr from Badakhshan province, Bashir Samim, said the Iranian government had long been executing Afghan prisoners. Kabul must ask Tehran why it was putting innocent Afghans to death, he stressed.

"The Afghans in Iran are looked down upon, but the Iranians are shown a lot of respect in our country," the lawmaker remarked. The foreign minister should be asked about the steps he had taken to alleviate the Afghans' plight in Iran, he said.

Zalmai Zabuli, a public representative from southern Zabul province, called for the Karzai administration to seriously take up the issue of Afghans' execution with the Iranian government. "Iran brazenly calls Afghanistan an occupied country."

Chairman Fazal Hadi Muslimyar concurred Iran had been trying to create problems for Afghanistan. "In a rather barefaced manner, Tehran seeks to occupy our homeland," he claimed.

Muslimyar blasted the government for failing to deal with the question of Afghans executed by Iran. He announced Foreign Minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul would be summoned to brief legislators on the issue. (Pajhwok)