IRANSHAHR, Sistan-Baluchestan Province Iran's police burned 630 kilograms of narcotics in this southeastern province Thursday afternoon to commemorate all officers killed in drug-related battles in Iran. Provincial Police Chief Nasser Sha'bani said that Iran is firm in its drug fight.
He said that 1,115 police officers had been killed in shootouts with armed bandits and traffickers in this border province alone since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, 35 of them in November last year.
Iran is a major transit point in the international drug trade, but has contributed a lot to the international struggle against drug trafficking.
Its eastern border with Afghanistan is the hub for drug syndicates and the most problematic in that respect.
In 1999 alone, 740 drug dealers and 174 Iranian police officers were killed in narcotics-related battles throughout Iran, according to government reports.
Since March 20, the start of the Iranian calendar year, 30 Afghan smugglers have been killed and nearly three tons of narcotics seized in northeastern Khorasan Province of Iran.
Earlier this month, an official with the training sector of the police said that four regiments would be deployed along the eastern borders in a bid to check armed bandits, mostly Afghans, who are operating along the border strip with Afghanistan.
Khorasan Governor General Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh said last month that two elite police regiments were to be deployed along the border with Afghanistan to supplement current anti-drug fight.
The Iranian Majlis (Parliament) has earmarked Rls.200 billion to improve security along 950 kilometers of the country's eastern borders.
Earlier in July, Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari vowed to step up efforts for restoring law and order along Iran's eastern borders and mop up the frontiers with Afghanistan.
About 100 kilometers of those borders have been fenced off and another 200 kilometers protected by electronic devices.
(IRNA)