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Iran agents free envoy nabbed in Pakistan in 2008
TEHRAN: Iranian agents have freed a diplomat from the Islamic republic who was kidnapped in Pakistan in November 2008, state media reported on Tuesday, in an apparent cross-border operation.
Iranian intelligence agents, in a complex operation, have released Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, the Iranian diplomat who was abducted in Pakistan, and brought him home, the official IRNA news agency said.
A separate report on state television's website said gunmen had abducted Attarzadeh on November 13, 2008 in Peshawar. He was on his way to an Iranian consulate when kidnappers killed his local guard.
Iranian media did not give details of Attarzadeh's release but indicated it could have been a cross-border operation.
The envoy's release comes after Iranian agents in February captured Tehran's most wanted Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi, who according to officials in Iran lived in Pakistan from where he launched attacks in the Islamic republic.
Rigi, head of the rebel Jundallah (Soldiers of God) group, was seized after Iranian warplanes reportedly forced a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan to land in Iran.
Iran touted his arrest as a major success of its intelligence agencies and a blow to the United States and Britain.
Soon after his arrest, state television ran a confession by Rigi that he was supported by the United States and promised a base along the border with Afghanistan near Iran.
Rigi reportedly spearheaded several bloody insurgent attacks in southeast Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province, which borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His group says it is fighting for the rights of Sunni Baloch of the province in mostly Shia Iran.
TEHRAN: Iranian agents have freed a diplomat from the Islamic republic who was kidnapped in Pakistan in November 2008, state media reported on Tuesday, in an apparent cross-border operation.
Iranian intelligence agents, in a complex operation, have released Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, the Iranian diplomat who was abducted in Pakistan, and brought him home, the official IRNA news agency said.
A separate report on state television's website said gunmen had abducted Attarzadeh on November 13, 2008 in Peshawar. He was on his way to an Iranian consulate when kidnappers killed his local guard.
Iranian media did not give details of Attarzadeh's release but indicated it could have been a cross-border operation.
The envoy's release comes after Iranian agents in February captured Tehran's most wanted Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi, who according to officials in Iran lived in Pakistan from where he launched attacks in the Islamic republic.
Rigi, head of the rebel Jundallah (Soldiers of God) group, was seized after Iranian warplanes reportedly forced a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan to land in Iran.
Iran touted his arrest as a major success of its intelligence agencies and a blow to the United States and Britain.
Soon after his arrest, state television ran a confession by Rigi that he was supported by the United States and promised a base along the border with Afghanistan near Iran.
Rigi reportedly spearheaded several bloody insurgent attacks in southeast Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province, which borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His group says it is fighting for the rights of Sunni Baloch of the province in mostly Shia Iran.