Pakistan frees 11 border-trespassing Iranians

Pakistan says Iranians crossed borders "mistakenly"
Pakistan frees 11 border-trespassing Iranians


ISLAMABAD (Agencies)

Pakistani authorities on Tuesday released 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards detained a day earlier for trespassing into Pakistani territory, officials said.

The guards were arrested in the Mashkhel area on the border with Iran eight days after a suicide bomber killed 42 people, including 15 members of the Revolutionary Guards, in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.

A Sunni Muslim group, Jundollah (God's soldiers), claimed responsibility for that blast and Iran said the group operated from Pakistan. On Tuesday last week, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said his force should be given permission to confront terrorists inside Pakistan, state media reported.

" The guards were handed over to the Iranian authorities because it's found that they crossed into Pakistan mistakenly "
Spokesman for Pakistan Frontier Corps paramilitary force

Iran's 120,000-member Revolutionary Guard is its strongest military force and is directly linked to the ruling clerics. It also controls Iran's missile program and guards its nuclear facilities.

Officials said the 11 Iranians Guards arrested on Monday had accidentally strayed in Pakistan territory. Iranian state television said they were arrested while pursuing suspected fuel smugglers.

"The guards were handed over to the Iranian authorities because it's found that they crossed into Pakistan mistakenly," said a spokesman for Pakistan's Frontier Corps paramilitary force.

Relations between Iran and Pakistan have generally been good, but tension has risen after Iran said last week's suicide bombing would affect relations.

Iran says the Jundollah group has bases in Pakistan and it has urged Pakistan to hand over its leader, Abdul Malik Riji.

Pakistan has assured Iran that it would cooperate in tracking down and punishing those behind the attack but has denied that Riji was in Pakistan.

Pakistan and Iran have had generally good relations in recent years and in May the two countries signed a landmark pact for a natural gas pipeline into Pakistan.

Jundollah has waged a low-level insurgency in Iran's southeast in recent years, claiming to fight on behalf of the Baluchi ethnic minority, which it says is persecuted by Iran's government.

Iran has also accused the United States and Britain of having links with Jundollah, charges both nations deny.