Seven remaining abducted border guards to be released soon: MP

Tehran, Nov 26, IRNA - The seven remaining abducted Iranian border guards will soon be released, said an Iranian member of parliament. Promising signs have appeared showing that such tragic events will be prevented and other kidnapped border guards will be released, thanks to exchanges and joint cooperation between the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Islamic Republic’s security and intelligence forces on one side and Pakistani sides on the other, Alim Yarmohammadi, the representative of southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan in the Iranian Parliament, told Iran Daily. In mid-October, a group of 12 Iranian security guards were kidnapped in a terrorist operation in the southeastern Iranian border city of Mirjaveh, for which Jaish al-Adl terror group claimed responsibility. Commenting on the moves and measures by the Islamic Republic to free the border guards, he said the Iranian diplomatic apparatus as well as security and intelligence forces told the Pakistani side to either prevent anti-Iranian revolution and dissident terrorist groups from entering the Iranian territory themselves, or to do this through joint efforts by the two countries’ security forces. They also told the Pakistani side to allow Iranian forces to establish security on the common border between the two countries in case they did not consent to either of the above requests, Yarmohammadi added. He noted that the Pakistani side, however, announced that it would tackle the issue. On attacks by terrorist groups on border police stations, the Iranian lawmaker said anti-Iranian revolution and dissident terrorist groups have given up hope of committing acts of terror within the provinces of the country and in the close proximity of the borders inside the Iranian territory. “They have realized that they can no longer make sabotage attempts inside the [Iranian] provinces. Highly effective to this end has, nevertheless, been the keen awareness of the country’s security and intelligence forces and Iranian people themselves.” He described as two wings of a bird the people of the country and activities by Iranian security and intelligence forces, whose effective coordination with each other has forced terrorists and dissident groups to keep their hands off Sistan-Baluchestan Province. The lawmaker added these dissident groups have not, however, stopped their activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the people of the country and “are still organizing certain moves against us inside the Pakistani territory in deserted or thinly-populated areas.” On the province’s common borders with neighboring states, Yarmohammadi said it has 12,000 kilometers of common land borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and 300 kilometers of sea border with the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. “Iranian forces have full control over all these common borders. The fact that our border police stations are, at times, attacked by anti-revolutionary forces is that they have lost hope of entering Iranian territory. That is why they make such moves.” The Baluchestan region is 80 percent Sunni-populated, he said, adding that in the Sistan region there are an equal number of Sunnis and Shias. Nevertheless, the followers of the two Islamic denominations have been living peacefully together in these regions for centuries, the MP noted. “Fortunately, consensus, unity and solidarity between Sunnis and Shias have been stressed in the highest echelons of the establishment of the Islamic Republic.” Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish