File Photo. Jack Guez—AFP
Eight Iranians, two Tunisians and one Yemeni national were freed during a raid in Turbat town.
Officials on Saturday said they had rescued 11 kidnapped foreigners—eight Iranians, two Tunisians and one Yemeni national—in the southwest town of Turbat near the Iranian border.
The security officials said that those freed did not include a group of Iranian border guards believed to have been kidnapped by jihadists and taken to Pakistan in early February, sparking diplomatic tensions.
“Eleven foreigners were rescued in a raid on a neighborhood of Turbat town, some 1,050 kilometers west of Quetta,” said a security official.
The raid had been conducted in an attempt to rescue five Iranian border guards who were kidnapped on Feb. 6 from Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, officials said. But the freed hostages were not thought to be the guards but believed to be connected to drug cartels operating in the province and to have been held hostage by them, officials said.
Balochistan is known as a gateway to Asia for drug smugglers and sees a frequent influx of foreigners from Iran and elsewhere.
Diplomatic ties between Iran and Pakistan touched a fresh low last week over the fate of the kidnapped border guards, when Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli reportedly threatened Pakistan that Tehran may send forces into Pakistan to free them.