Annan urged to pressure Taliban to clarify fate of diplomat

Tehran, Nov 6 (IRNA) -- The relatives of Iranian diplomat at Iran's Consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Majid Nouri Niyaraki said on Monday that the body handed over to Iran by the Taliban is not the remains of the diplomat.

Providing a certificate from the Coroner's Office, the family members called on the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to put pressure on Taliban to hand over the remains of the martyred diplomat to his family or clarify his fate.

Niyaraki's family said in a letter to the United Nations secretary general, "As you are aware, the Taliban militia on August 8, 1998 raided the Iranian Consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif in contravention of all internationally recognized regulations and norms. It was later announced that Iranian diplomats working in the consulate had all been martyred."

Taliban handed over the bodies of the nine diplomats to Iran and the remains of Majid Nouri Niyaraki was not identified and the genetic tests conducted by the Coroner's Office proved that the body of one victim handed over to Iran was not that of Majid Nouri Niyaraki, the letter said.

The letter quoted the only eyewitness to the Taliban crime as saying that Nouri Niyaraki was alive despite sustaining injuries in his legs. "We have tried hard to find out our beloved family member over the past two years," Niyaraki's family said in the letter to Annan.

They asked the U.N. secretary general to do his best to oblige Taliban to hand over Nouri Niaraki's remains to his family or clarify his fate as soon as possible.