'Active' efforts underway to recover abducted Iran troops, says Pak

Pakistan on Wednesday told Iran that it had launched "active" efforts to locate 11 Iranian security personnel, who were abducted by unknown militants near its border.

The Iranian guards were abducted by terrorists on Tuesday in the Lulakdan, a small village some 150-km southeast of Zahedan, the capital of the province of Sistan-Balochistan bordering Pakistan, according to Iranian media.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for kidnapping the Iranian guards.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif Wednesday called his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi and raised the issue of abduction of the Iranian border guards.

Qureshi "expressed his serious concern on the incident" and briefed Zarif about the active efforts launched by the Pakistan's law enforcement agencies to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing Iranian guards, in coordination with the Iranian military and intelligence counterparts, the Foreign Office said.

It said the two Directors General (Military Operations) were in close contact through hotline to coordinate the search and rescue efforts including enhanced air surveillance and troops deployment in the border area where the incident took place.

Qureshi blamed the kidnapping on "our common enemies unhappy with the existing close, friendly relations between Pakistan and Iran," the FO added.

Reaffirming Pakistan's commitment of not allowing anyone succeed in such malicious efforts, Qureshi said that Pakistan and Iran have traditionally shared a "border of peace and friendship" which would be maintained in the same spirit.