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Iran releases 8 Pakistani officials

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: Iran released eight officials of Pakistan’s Fisheries Department on Wednesday.

Iranian Marine Security Guards had arrested the men after they accidentally crossed into Iranian territorial waters. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi took up the matter with the Iranian consul general in Quetta. The Iranian officials not only agreed to unconditionally release the officials, but also to return their boats and weapons. The released men returned to their hometown of Jiwani safe and sound.

Last week, Pakistan’s Frontier Corps also detained 11 officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Mashkil after the latter entered Pakistani territory in their ongoing search for Jundullah activists. Jundullah has been blamed for a series of attacks, including one last month that killed 40 people. However, covert negotiations between the officials of both the countries culminated in the release of the Iranian officials.

Iran has also shut its border with Pakistan for all forms of business, which has caused a shortage of essentials in the border area. Pakistan’s border towns largely depend on cheap food items that are smuggled from Iran. On Tuesday, Iran executed a Jundullah member, Abdolhamid Reigi. He was hanged inside a prison in the southeastern city of Zahedan. Reigi had been convicted of various charges, including ‘moharebe’ or staging war against God, punishable by death under Iran’s law.

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