Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief-commander has claimed that the Iranian border guards who were kidnapped on Tuesday had been made unconscious beforehand by an insider.
“Enemies managed to make a number of local Basij forces and border guards unconscious and abduct them in a post in border areas in Mirjaveh region,” Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Wednesday.
The kidnapping occurred in Sistan and Balochistan province, which has seen unrest for years by Sunni Baloch militants. Iran alleges these militants escape to Pakistan after conducting attacks.
General Jafari said ‘terrorist groups’ had for several times attempted to conquer the base, but they failed to so do.
“They were certain they would not be able to achieve their aim as long as our fighters are alive and vigilant, so they tried to abduct these people after making them unconscious,” he claimed.
The Iranian General boasted: “this is no masterwork and God willing, they will receive our hard and crushing response”.
General Jafari said enemies are investing huge sums of money to foment insecurity inside Iran, but Iranian forces are determined to counter and foil their plots.
Iranian border guards were picked up by unknown militants early on Tuesday morning.
Though the Iranian officials only confirmed abduction of fourteen personnel but some sources revealed to TBP that the actual number of abductees is nineteen. This could not be verified by independent sources.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abductions yet. However, Jaish ul Adl a splinter group of Jundullah has carried out attacks against Iranian forces in the province in past too.