Interior Ministry: No Authentic Report On 5 Abducted Guards Yet

Tehran, March 2, IRNA – A top Interior Ministry official said Saturday night there is still no authentic report of fate of 5 Iranian abducted border guards, adding that the ministry is trying to gain precise and reliable reports through Foreign Ministry. Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Ali Abdollahi who was reacting to some news broadcasted on Saturday on freedom of the five abducted Iranian border guards by terrorist bandits said that the Pakistani military forces had recently launched a massive anti-terrorist operation against the militants in a certain part of that countryˈs soil. ˈWe are after acquiring information, method and results of that operation,ˈ he said. Some Pakistani media had quoted Khan Vasi, the spokesman of the Pakistani border guards as saying that during the Saturday operation eleven kidnapped foreigners were saved from the Terroristsˈ hands. Without referring to the number of the freed Iranian border guards, those media had claimed that the freed Iranian border guards were among freed foreigners in Pakistanˈs Torbat region. The news adds that the freed foreigners by the Pakistani border guards included some Yemeni and Tanzanian citizens and inspection to identify nationalities of the others were underway. It had earlier been announced that the Iranian and the Pakistani officials had launched a joint operation with Iranians aimed at finding the abducted Iranian citizens following their three-day Joint Border Security Commission in Quetta, the capital city of Pakistanˈs Baluchistan. That is while a senior Iranian general on Saturday confirmed reports that the five Iranian border guards, who were abducted by terrorists near Iran’s border with Pakistan, have been freed. “The five Iranian soldiers who were kidnapped at Iran’s eastern borders and were transferred to Pakistan, have been released,” Masˈoud Jazayeri the deputy chief of the general staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, told reporters in Qom. Following negotiation with the Pakistani government and efforts by Iranian police and security organizations, the hostages were freed, the brigadier general added. The Iranian guards were abducted in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan on Feb. 6 and were transferred to Pakistan. Later, the so-called Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group posted photos of the five men on twitter and claimed responsibility for the abduction. On February 21, Iran and Pakistan announced that the two countries had set up a joint border committee to counter cross-border terrorism and specifically take measures to secure the release of the border guards./end