|
|
Minister: Iran not to negotiate with abductors |
 |
+ |
- |
08:57, June 30, 2008 |
Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i said on Sunday that his country will not negotiate with a rebel group that has abducted sixteen police officers, Iran's satellite Press TV reported.
"We do not negotiate with criminals," Mohseni-Eje'i said, adding that the Foreign Ministry and the related officials are taking necessary measures to free the recently abducted policemen.
Sixteen police officers were abducted by the Jundullah (Army of Allah) group on June 12 at a checkpoint in the city of Saravan in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
It is said that the hostages were later taken across the border to neighboring country of Pakistan.
The group has claimed that it has so far killed four members of the abducted police.
The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television quoted a spokesperson for Jundullah group as saying that 200 imprisoned members of the group should be released in return for one of the police members.
The spokesperson warned that the remaining hostages would be killed if Tehran refrained from fulfilling its demands.
Mohseni-Eje'i said he could not confirm whether the group had killed the four police officers.
Jundullah is a Sunni Muslim rebel group that mostly operates in Pakistan's Balochistan province and Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province.
The group is believed to be linked to al-Qaida and has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan.
Sistan-Baluchestan province borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iranian security forces usually clash with local armed groups involved in drug smuggling and kidnappings.
Sistan-Baluchestan and its nearby province of Kerman have been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings in the past years, which the Iranian authorities mostly blamed on Jundullah.
Source:Xinhua
|
|
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article