Iran says rescues diplomat kidnapped in Pakistan
- From: enayet <enayat.mehsud@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:16:29 -0700 (PDT)
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said Tuesday that its intelligence agents had
rescued an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Pakistan in 2008 and returned
him to the Islamic Republic. Unidentified gunmen kidnapped
Heshmatollah Attarzadeh Niyaki, the commercial attache at Iran's
consulate in Peshawar, on November 13, 2008 on his way to the
consulate from his home, shooting dead a policeman guarding him.
"Iran's intelligence agents freed our kidnapped diplomat in a
sophisticated operation," Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi told
state television. "He has safely returned to Iran." Moslehi gave no
further information on the operation, and Abbas Ali Abdullahi, head of
the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, told Reuters he had "no information
about where he was recovered."
Suspicion for the kidnapping fell on the Taliban and affiliated Sunni
Muslim militant groups such as al Qaeda, who hate Shi'ite Muslims and
predominantly Shi'ite Iran almost as much as they hate the West. But
criminal gangs, which at times use religion as a cover, are also
active in the area. Iran condemned the kidnapping at the time as a
"terrorist act."
Peshawar, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, became a den of
spies and jihadis in the 1980s when the United States and Saudi Arabia
covertly funded an Islamist guerrilla war to expel Soviet forces from
Afghanistan. A senior Afghan diplomat was kidnapped in the city weeks
before Niyaki was abducted. He is still missing. U.S. diplomats have
also been attacked in the city.
Pakistan and Iran have been trying to improve relations recently as
neighbors and regional players, preparing for the U.S.-led alliance to
start withdrawing its troops in 2011. Iran's arrest of the leader of
the Sunni rebel group Jundollah, with possible help from Pakistan, was
the latest sign of their new cooperation. Abdolmalek Rigi was arrested
in February in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.
Iran has linked Jundollah (God's soldiers) to the Sunni Islamist al
Qaeda network, accusing Pakistan, Britain and the United States of
backing the rebel group to destabilize the country, a charge all three
deny. Moslehi said the presence of Western powers had destabilized the
region. "The presence of American, Israeli and European intelligence
services in the area ... had no result but insecurity in the region,"
Moslehi said.
Jundollah, which accuses the Iranian government of discrimination
against Sunnis, said it was behind an October 18 attack, the deadliest
in Iran since the 1980s, that killed more than 40 Iranians, including
15 elite Revolutionary Guards.
Article Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033000682.html
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