Pakistani authorities have freed the 12 Iranian people arrested Monday from Washuk district near Mashkel, a town bordering Iran, as they entered into Pakistani territory illegally, Pakistani police said Tuesday.
Sources have claimed the arrested were members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards force. They said the Iranians were traveling in two vehicles and had entered into Jowdar area of southwest Pakistan's Balochistan. The Pakistani security forces arrested them and took them away
for necessary investigations.
The spokesman of Frontier Corps Balochistan said the arrested men were Iranian civilians and not the Revolutionary Guards, adding that they have been interrogated, Pakistani newspaper The Nation reported.
However, the spokesman did not disclose the number of the arrested.
Sources said the Foreign Ministry and other concerned authorities had been informed regarding the arrest.
Some sources said that the Iranian border security officials have confirmed the arrest of Revolutionary Guards who were carrying out an
operation against the banned organization, Jundallah, in their own area when they mistakenly entered into Pakistani territory.
Iran had closed its border with Pakistan following the suicide attack in Sarbaz area of the southeastern province of Sistan- Baluchestan on Oct. 18, which killed 42 people, including 15 members of its elite Revolutionary Guards. Tehran blamed "elements inside Pakistan" for the attack, which was later claimed by the rebel group Jundullah.
On Monday, Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari once again ramped up pressure on Islamabad to hand over Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah who Tehran says is based in Pakistan.
"We are expecting this (Pakistani) government to cooperate with Iran in apprehending this guy (Rigi)," he said, adding that Islamabad was under the "influence and pressure of America."
Islamabad has strongly denied that the Jundallah attack was launched
from its territory.