Security officials rescue 11 foreign hostages in Turbat, miss out on Iranian soldiers

QUETTA: Officials on Saturday said they had rescued 11 kidnapped foreigners including eight Iranians, two Tunisians and one Yemeni national – in Turbat, Balochistan. The security officials told AFP that those freed did not include a group of Iranian border guards believed to have been kidnapped earlier in February, sparking diplomatic tensions. A security official told AFP, “Eleven foreigners were rescued in a raid in a neighbourhood of Turbat town.” The raid had been conducted in an attempt to rescue five Iranian border guards who were kidnapped on February 5 from Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province, officials said. But the freed hostages were not thought to be the guards but believed to be connected to a drug cartels operating in the province and to have been held hostage by them, officials said. Diplomatic ties between Iran and Pakistan touched a fresh low last week over fate of the kidnapped border guards, when the Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli reportedly threatened Pakistan that Tehran may send forces into Pakistan to free them. Sistan-Baluchestan province has been the scene of unrest in recent years. An insurgent group calling itself Jaishul Adl, or “Army of Justice”, has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The group had posted pictures on its Facebook page it said were of the soldiers, handcuffed and being held in an unknown location.