The female captive of the Belgian couple kidnapped by armed bandits in southeastern Iran two days ago has been freed, but her husband was still in captivity, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.
"The female one Carla was released by the captors yesterday, we are still taking efforts to free the other one," local police captain Mohammad Javad Asna-Shahri was quoted as saying by IRNA.
In Brussels, Belgian Foreign Minister Karl de Gucht told reporters that the female hostage was released on "humanitarian grounds," adding that the man could be freed later Wednesday or Thursday.
Expressing his gratitude to Iran for helping secure the release of Carla Van den Eeckhout, the Belgian top diplomat said the woman was now under police protection in Zahedan and she would be transferred to the Iranian capital Tehran as soon as possible.
Belgian tourists Stefaan Boeve and Carla Van den Eeckhout were kidnapped Sunday by bandits while visiting the historic sites near the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Iran.
Local police said the kidnappers have demanded the Iranian authorities release their leader's brother in return for the freedom of the two Belgian hostages.
"Ismaeel Shahbakhsh, leader of a bandit group in the area, abducted the Belgian couple on Sunday near Fahraj, on the borders of the Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces," Colonel Abbas Ebrahimi was quoted as saying on Monday.
Fahraj, 60 km east of Bam, is situated on the road between Bam and Zahedan, the capital of the restive Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province and its nearby province of Kerman have seen a string of attacks and kidnappings in the past years, which the Iranian authorities blamed on a Sunni group called Jundallah.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article