Five freed Iranian troops flown home

Iranian Revolutionary Guards confirm the recovery

TEHRAN: Five Iranian security personnel who had been held by militants for a month have been flown home after Pakistani forces secured their release, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday.

The five were part of a mixed unit of 12 border guards, militiamen and intelligence agents who were captured by militants of the Jaishal Adl group during an operation near the border on October 16, a state television-run news agency reported.

The Pakistani foreign ministry announced on November 15 that police and troops had secured the release of five of the captives and were still trying to free the others.



“Following efforts and interactions with the Pakistani side to free the border guards and militiamen,” five of them “were released and returned to Iran last night,” the Revolutionary Guards said.

The Guards website carried photographs of the five being welcomed home by generals as they got off the plane.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif visited Islamabad twice in a month for briefings on the progress of the efforts to secure the captured unit’s release.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi blamed the kidnapping on “our common enemies unhappy with the existing close, friendly relations between Pakistan and Iran”.