QUETTA, Sept 15: Border security officials on Monday arrested an Afghan army major with his weapon in the Chaman area, for crossing into the country.

“An Afghan army major crossed into Pakistan with his AK-47 rifle,” a border security official said.

He was handed over to the authorities concerned for interrogation, sources said.

Earlier, the border security forces had arrested around 100 Afghans who crossed into the country from Iran on Saturday night in the Taftan area.

“The Afghan nationals illegally crossed into Pakistan using unfrequented routes, taking the benefit of darkness,” a local administration official said. Sources said they were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency for interrogation.

Iranian border authorities pushed back 40 Pakistanis who had crossed into Iran illegally on Sunday.

“The people belonging to Punjab were trying to cross into Iran without travelling documents,” an official of Taftan levies said.

The levies arrested the 40 people for illegally entering Iran and handed them over to the FIA for investigation.

REMANDED: The FIA on Monday produced a suspected Taliban member, Mohammad Omar, before a magistrate in Chaman, who remanded him in FIA custody for 10 days.

Sources said a team of FIA and other agencies was interrogating him.

“The suspect had worked with the last Taliban governor of Kandahar, Mulla Hasan Hamdani, as computer or telephone operator,” they said.

He was arrested last week with 10 other Afghan nationals by the border security officials when they illegally crossed into the country from Afghanistan without the required travelling documents.