19 January 2011 Last updated at 10:37 ET

Probe into acid attack on Afghan reporter Razaq Mamoon

Mr Mamoon says that only his glasses prevented him from being seriously injured

Police in Afghanistan are hunting for an attacker who sprayed acid in the face of journalist Razaq Mamoon as he walked home in Kabul on Tuesday.

Mr Mamoon is in hospital after the assault by a masked man, which was condemned by President Karzai.

The journalist - who has blamed the attack on Iran - said that he was only saved from critical injury because he was wearing glasses at the time.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul has not commented on Mr Mamoon's allegations.

Police, meanwhile, have given no indication in public that Iran is in any way responsible.

'Threatened'

But speaking to the BBC from his hospital bed, Mr Mamoon said: ''Absolutely the Iranians are behind this attack because nobody dares to speak out in front of Iran."

He said that a new book he had written, The Footprint of Pharaoh, documented "Iranian sabotage and intelligence activities... of how they wanted to divide Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule".

''The publishers of my book were threatened a few days ago by officials of the Iranian embassy in Kabul," he said.

"They tried to ban the book. I had the feeling that they would do something. I don't think this will be the first and last. There might be other people too on their list.''

Mr Mamoon has accused Iran in the past of being involved involved in the killing of Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud in 2001.

Correspondents say that Mr Mamoon, an ethnic Tajik like Mr Massoud, is also known for making controversial remarks seen by some as hostile to Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group.

He accused an ethnic Pashtun politician of plotting the murder of former communist President Najibullah by the Taliban in 1996.