ID :
338147
Sun, 08/17/2014 - 12:10
Auther :

Intelligence Ministry: Abducted Iranian Fencing Champ, Lawyer Freed

Tehran, Aug 17, IRNA – Public Relations of Iranˈs Intelligence Ministry announced here Saturday that two Iranian citizens kidnapped on April 30 by anti-revolutionary terrorists in southeast Iran were freed in an operation. The Intelligence Ministry refers to the launching of complicated intelligence work by its experienced officers, tracing the terrorists and anti-revolutionary forces throughout the eastern parts of Iran, and arresting a number of the hooligans, which led to the freeing of those two abducted citizens and their safe return to their worried families. The freed hostages include former Iranian national fencing champion Hamed Sedaqati and judiciary lawyer Mahdi-Hossein Qaralori, who were abducted on April 30 when traveling on Khash-Zahedan road by the terrorists. The intelligence officers had identified both the kidnappers and the place where they kept the hostages before launching a well harmonized operation in a number of eastern Iranian provinces to free the two hostages. Meanwhile, the Governor General of Sistan-o Balouchestan Province Ali-Owsat Hashemi had earlier in the day announced the good news in his Facebook page, saying that Hamed Sedaqati, the abducted Iranian fencing champion in Khash and his abducted companion Mahdi Qaralori were freed thanks to intelligence Ministry officersˈ efforts. Deputy Governor General Ali-Asqar Mirshkari, too, had announced the news in an interview with IRNA on Saturday morning, adding that the regionˈs elderly had assisted the intelligence officers in the operation, making the job easier for both sides. ˈThe kidnappers had asked for five million US dollars for freeing each of the kidnapped hostages from their families,ˈ said Mirshekari. Hamed Sedaqati was a member of the Iranian national fencing team for seven years and in 2006 Doha Asian Games along with Siamak Asgari, Mohammad Rezaˈie, and Ali Yaˈqoubian they ranked 3rd in team epee field. Mohammad-Ali Qaffari, 29, had been shot dead by the terrorists in the operation in which they abducted Sedaqati and Hosseini. Sedaqatiˈs uncle, Esmaˈeil Qanian said in an interview with ISNA that the terrorists were keeping the two hostages in a house located in an 80-kilometer distance from Khash on a mountain top. ˈEven the guards that the terrorists had appointed were non-natives so that no one would doubt and when the security forces were all set to begin their attack to free the kidnapped hostages the regionˈs elderly and the Friday Prayers imam of Khash interfered meddling between the hostage takers and them, enabling security forces to free the hostages without launching the attack,ˈ he said./end

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