RNA - In a statement issued on Tuesday, the IRGC confirmed that local Basij volunteer forces and border guards had been among those abducted overnight near the town of Mirjaveh on the Pakistani border.
Members of “terrorist groups led and backed by foreign services” carried out the kidnappings by “deceiving and bribing infiltrators.”
Iranian security forces, it added, are preparing to carry out operations to chase the terrorists and secure the release of those kidnapped.
Earlier in the day, Iranian media quoted informed sources as saying that 14 Iranian forces had been abducted in the village of Lulakdan near Mirjaveh.
The Fars news agency later revised down the number of abductees to 11.
Media reports are also speculating that the abductees had been fed poison by the terrorists prior to being crossed over into Pakistan.
In recent, Iranian border guards have repeatedly come under attacks by terror outfits active on the Pakistani soil.
The so-called Jaish ul-Adl terror group – which is based in Pakistan – usually claims responsibility for such assaults.
According to Press TV, Tehran has repeatedly filed protests with Islamabad over its failure to end terror activities on the Pakistani side of the border. Two neighbors had signed a security deal in 2013.
Elsewhere in Tuesday’s statement, the IRGC said Iran expects Pakistan to deal with the terrorists seriously and work to facilitate the release of the abducted Iranian forces.
Iranian forces usually engage in clashes with terrorists in border regions, thwarting their attempts to infiltrate the country.
The group was formed in 2012 by members of the Pakistan-based Jundallah, another terror outfit which was dismantled by Iranian intelligence forces in 2010 after its ringleader, Abdolmalek Rigi, was executed.
Back in August, Iran managed to release a border guard from terrorist captivity. The guard had been abducted during an ambush on a border outpost in Mirjaveh and held in Pakistan for more than one year.
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