Afghanistan may be a rich country regarding different minerals and other natural treasures but it is just like a new-natal baby regarding infrastructure and other necessary elements that are needed to run the country and provide the people with the basic necessities of life. Before the Soviet invasion of 1979, there were present limited number of factories but then the bloodshed of three decades not only ate away all the factories but also destroyed the infrastructure. After the restoration of peace and democracy in 2001, all the efforts were beamed at the restoration of infrastructure without which a country cannot perform its functions properly. But unfortunately, very less attention has been given for the establishment of new factories and creating job opportunities because with its limited population, Afghanistan is one of the countries with high rate of unemployment. Due to instable conditions of peace and security, there is very less to do in remote or rural areas and thus every day, large number of people head to the urban establishments in search of jobs but they get really disappointed here as well.

This joblessness is not limited to any specific city or part of the country rather there are a large number of jobless people in every corner of the country. It is the reason why a large number of people try to go abroad in search of employment. A lot many people try to pass to Europe after passing through Iran and Turkey. Similarly, we repeatedly hear about the miserable deaths of Afghans who drown in the sea between Indonesia and Australia in an effort to reach to the affluent lands of Australia. More easy is to go to our neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran and thus we see long lines of Afghans waiting to acquire the visas of these countries.

In such circumstances, importance of Iran for Afghans and Afghanistan cannot be ignored. Iran, being one of the strongest economies of Muslim world, carries a lot of importance to Afghanistan because most of our trade activities depend on it as our traders use its seaports to import and export the Afghan goods with other nations. In the same way, our traders import a lot of goods from Iran which make sure the economic activities in the country.

But in last couple of years, we have seen the worsening relations between the two neighboring nations due to numerous reasons. One of the prime reasons is the hanging of Afghan citizens by the government of Iran. Similarly, some Afghans were shot down when they tried to cross the border illegally into Iran, which was termed to be very cruel and against the international humanitarian laws.

Afghan citizens are hanged to death in Iran on different charges, mostly drug trafficking and murder. Whenever such a tragic event takes place, there rises a great hue and cry from the public and anti-Iran protests and mass demonstrations are held in different cities of the country. Usually capital city Kabul and border city of Herat become the centre of this hate spark. In some worst cases, demonstrators try to attack the Embassy or Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is averted by police or security forces. Such events also spark a new round of fiery comments by the political analysts in which the cruel act of Iranian government is criticized and government is urged to question the government of Iran in this regard. Similarly, print media also works to increase the public contempt against our neighboring country.

But informed sources say that facts are absolutely different from what is perceived by the general public and the way it is portrayed in Afghan media. It is true that in some cases, some or most of the punished victims may be innocent, as claimed by their family members but there is present a strong narcotics smuggling mafia that uses these innocent people and when the government of Iran tries to stop their activities and punish the wrong-doers, this mafia tries to pressurize the government of Iran by arranging such demonstrations and general public is absolutely unaware of this conspiracy.

It must be cleared that government of Iran has undertaken some strict measures against the promotion of addictive drugs and any person caught in trafficking narcotics is punished to death. This law equally applies to both Iranian and Non-Iranian citizens and one can check that government of Iran hangs dozens of its own citizens on the same charges and it is the reason why, Iran is one of the most difficult points for drug trafficking. On the other hand, it is the neighbor of Afghanistan, the biggest producer of narcotics in the world and Iran emerges as a direct obstacle when narcotics are to be smuggled to other parts of the world and thus there are strong drug mafias working on broad scales to transport drugs from Afghanistan to rest of the world via Iran. This drug mafia includes Afghan citizens working in the bordering cities of Afghanistan while they also have their associates on the other side of border, inside Iran.

Anyhow, these mafia members always trap an innocent person and promise him to send Iran for a good job and give him handsome money in advance. This jobless person becomes very happy and soon leaves to Iran but these smugglers put some narcotics in his luggage of which he is absolutely unaware. Most of these people successfully pass the security forces of Iran and they are received by their sponsors when they reach to their destiny inside the Iran. While some of them are caught and are sentenced to death. They inform their families that they were innocent and were absolutely unaware of any drug and blame the security forces of Iran. When a large number of such detained Afghanis are hanged, there rises a huge hue and cry in Afghanistan, without knowing the actual story.

Similarly, there are present mafias that work to transport the people from Afghanistan to Iran and then from there to Europe via Turkey. These mafia members are very trained and cunning. They take a large sum of money from the people and lead them to cross into Iran illegally. Due to the increasing number of such incidents, government of Iran made a law according to which the border security forces of Iran were given permission to shoot down the infiltrators if they did not stop on their call. The situation was worsened by the firing of mafia activists on Iranian forces, killing and injuring a number of their members. With these incidents, there increased the vigilance in bordering areas and direct orders were given to shoot down the mafia members. It has also been reported that these mafia members are very clever and in case of any collision with Iranian forces, they escape the spot and innocent people are shot down by the security forces of Iran. All these seem to be cruel but in fact it is very much justified as government of Iran has repeatedly announced that anyone trying to get into its borders illegally will be shot down.

We do have the right to protest against any unfair treatment by any nation of the world but it would be very harmful if we do so without knowing the actual circumstances.

These irrational demonstrations have badly affected the relations of two neighboring Muslim countries. Afghanistan is already having very tense relations with its neighbor, Pakistan and she cannot afford to worsen its relations with another neighbor. It is needed that Afghan government should start a wide-scale operation against these smugglers operating in the border cities of Afghanistan and try to finish the root causes of this evil. Without such logical steps, the problem would remain unsolved, creating problems for the people and governments of both the countries.