The Cultural Heritage News Agency has criticized Massoud Soltanifar, the head of the Cultural Heritage Organization, for failing to address the death of a traveller in Shahdad Dessert last month due to a land mine explosion.

The report laments the fact that Soltanifar failed to mention the incident at his press conference and, “without expressing any regret about the incident involving this traveller, merely said that he accepts there are some problems in the country’s travel and tourism field but claims that all these trips cannot be supervised by his organization.”

Last month, a car carrying four travelers in the Shahdad Dessert in central Iran ran into a land mine; Hamid Hashemi, one of the four travellers died and the other three were seriously injured.

Last year, a similar incident led to the death of a tour guide in the Lut Dessert.

Iranian security forces have admitted that they sometimes use land mines on routes they believe are frequented by smugglers.

Radio Zamaneh