Pakistan deports three Iranian border guards

Iranian border guards entered Pakistan in pursuit of drug traffickers, say Iranian officials. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

QUETTA: Pakistan deported three Iranian border guards on Sunday after they were pardoned in court by the family of a man killed in a cross-border attack, officials said.

The three guards were arrested on January 2 in Balochistan along the Iranian border after they allegedly crossed the frontier and shot at a car, killing one Pakistani national.

“The three personnel of Iranian border security force have been deported after a court ordered their release,” Saeed Ahmad Jamali, Deputy Commissioner of Washuk district told AFP.

They had already been charged with the murder of the Pakistani man following a written complaint from the father of the victim. But on Saturday the parents of the victim pardoned the three guards in court, and the court ordered their release, Jamali said.

The court also fined them 9,000 rupees for illegally crossing the Pakistani border.

The Iranians opened fire on a vehicle they were chasing in Mazan Sar Mashkail, in the Washuk district, three kilometres inside Pakistan, according to officials.

Mazan Sar Mashkail is around 600 kilometres southwest of Quetta.