Baku, Azerbaijan, April 8
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Senior Pakistani official says that the Iranian border guards who were kidnapped by an Islamist group late February were never transferred to Pakistan.
"We have information that they were held inside Iran and they're being released," spokesperson of the Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tasnim Aslam told Trend news agency on April 8.
It is while Iranian officials repeatedly claimed that Pakistan is to be held accountable for the incident.
On Feb. 17, Iranian media outlets quoted Iran's Interior Minister, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli as saying Iranian forces will enter Pakistan if the country does not take action 'against terrorist groups.
Commenting on the claims, the Pakistani official said that "when Iranians first brought up this issue, we asked them to give us some information, and the joint border commission met for talks."
"Iran gave us some information that some people were kidnapped and transferred to Pakistan, however our local officials said that these people were never brought to Pakistan," Aslam underlined.
Five border guards were initially kidnapped by Jaish ul-Adl group on Feb. 6 in the Jakigour region of the Iran's south eastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan which borders with Pakistan.
On March 23, Jaish al-Adl tweeted that it has hanged Jamshid Danayeefar, one of the five kidnapped guards. The other guards were released on April 4.
Iranian officials say that Danayeefar's body is still being kept inside the Pakistan and the Pakistani administration should take steps to find and handover of the body to Iran.
Responding the claims Ms. Aslam said that "the Jaish ul-Adl is not Pakistan-based group."
She underlined that "some of these terrorist groups operate in many countries, and they keep moving. That's the situation."
Commenting on Iranian officials' statements which accuse Pakistan of no control over its borders, Aslam said that the borders by the two countries are managed by both sides.
"It is the responsibility of both countries to control their sides," she said.
"Many of these groups such as Jundallah wander around, and it is a joint responsibility of Iran and Pakistan (to fight them). Both sides should take action," she said, adding that "if they say there's no strict control on Pakistani side, we can say the same thing about the other side."