ISLAMABAD, March 17: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri told the National Assembly on Wednesday that Pakistan has lodged a protest with Iran on the killing of 28 Pakistani nationals by Iranian police last year.

In a written statement during the question hour, he said Pakistan had also asked the Iranian government to hold a thorough inquiry into the incident of firing on unarmed Pakistanis and take necessary action against those guilty of high-handedness.

He said the Iranian government had also been requested to instruct its border security guards to refrain from firing on innocent Pakistanis on the border.

In response to a question from MMA member Farid Ahmad Paracha, the minister acknowledged that illegal immigration from Pakistan to Europe via Iran and Turkey was still continuing unabated and had increased to alarming proportions in recent years, causing avoidable irritants in Pakistan's relations with affected neighbouring countries.

He said miseries of poor Pakistanis had increased manifold because of human smuggling and increased vigilance by the security agencies of countries on the route and added that Pakistan's embassies in Iran and Turkey had been regularly reporting on such cases with concern.

About killing of some Pakistani citizens in Iran, he said some cases had been filed for blood money were under judicial process although the Iranian law did not provide for compensation if claimed in a case of illegal border crossing.

The minister admitted that Pakistan's embassy in Greece had informed last year that as a result of firing by Turkish border guards on a boat crossing the Evros River all the 23 illegal immigrants, including 17 Pakistanis, had drowned after they jumped off the boat to save their lives. Medical examinations confirmed that the deaths were caused by suffocation.

Bodies of seven Pakistanis were transported to Pakistan at government expense while the rest were buried in Greece as their bodies were badly decomposed for remaining in water for a long time, he said.