Iran frees 2 soldiers kidnapped in Pakistan

[Tomcats]

Official statements from Iran :

https://twitter.com/x/status/1357276232812023809

https://twitter.com/x/status/1357301054799544321

 

[RoadRunner401]

No I don't. PA is one of the best and I have a lot of respect for them.

But in all due respect if PA can't free these hostages in 2 years, we should not be surprised if the Iranians do it for us since they have the capability.

If I was Iran, I would not have waited 2 years for Pakistan to do this, they have a lot of patience with us when you view this from their perspective.

calm the **** down!

We have been helping the Iranians with this task from day one.


ISLAMABAD - Pakistan confirmed Thursday that its security forces have rescued five abducted Iranian border guards, saying efforts to recover other captives are ongoing.
An anti-Iran Sunni militant organization known as Jaish al-Adl kidnapped a group of 12 security guards a month ago in the southeastern Iranian border city of Mirjaveh and took the captives to the Pakistani side of the porous frontier between the two countries.
Tehran demanded Islamabad help recover the men.
“With concerted efforts of the Pakistani LEAs (law enforcement agencies) and armed forces, five abducted Iranian guards have been safely recovered,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal announced in Islamabad.
He added the Iranians are in good health and the Pakistani military-led “concerted efforts” to recover the other guards were continuing.
The Pakistani statement came hours after the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, disclosed to reporters that the five guards were free and hosted by authorities in the neighboring country.
Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the October 15 kidnapping and demanded release of its prisoners in Iran in exchange for the abductees.
The incident occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has a long history of violence by separatist militants. It borders Pakistan’s sparsely populated province of Baluchistan.
The Iranian province has been the scene of clashes involving Iranian forces and militants as well as drug traffickers.
Iranian separatists say their violence is retaliation for what they call Iran’s oppression against Sistan-Baluchistan’s predominantly Sunni population.
Pakistan and Iran share a more than 900-kilometer-long border.
Tehran alleges that militants involved in terrorist attacks in Iran use Pakistani territory to plot them. The allegation remains a source of tension in Islamabad’s otherwise friendly and traditionally close relationship with Tehran.
The Pakistani military has recently deployed thousands of additional troops on the border to boost security. Islamabad has previously captured and handed over to Tehran leaders and members of anti-Iran groups.

https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/pakistan-rescues-kidnapped-iranian-border-guards

Pakistan has been helping Iran in this matter from day one..While terrorist Indians harming our country are free to operate from Iran..
You made deal with terrorist for the release of guards, yeah that was big operation deep inside Pakistan territory.

 

[TNT]

it was a prisoner exchange with terrorists and look at all the fake chest thumping and self praising. Well atleast we see how similar these iranians are to RSS rats. Seems both put more effort in propaganda than real stuff.
I have been to different pak iran border crossings multiple times and ive seen the begging they do for barter but on social media look at their boasting. There are ppl on border selling iranian women for dollars and begging us to buy their women. I am not exaggerating and if someone is interested, i can point them in the right direction

 

[Irfan Baloch]

This is violation of sovereign country. Pak needs strong military leadership to conduct the raids inside Iran to destroy BLA camps.

relax
this raid happened on the computer screen only
it is as authentic as indian surgical strike claim years ago where they claimed their commandos put leopard shit on their faces to scare away guard dogs on Pakistani side of LOC and killed 100s of kashmiris to avenge Uri atrack on indian forces by Kashmiri freedom fighters.
in reality the leopard shit turned out to be bullshit and they suffocated before crossingthe border.

 

[mudas777]

The title and the subheading makes it sound like it was all a unilateral action inside Pakistan which is a lawless country.

That should not be allowed but having said that we need to bring our own country under the writ of the government. We are fencing the border and how we manage the the border controls is the key.

 

[Tomcats]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1357307124783677441

 

[Aspen]

Even then going on your own won't justify.
It's quite a possibility pakistani intelligence also doesn't know about the location of those kidnapped guards. Because such terrorist groups also operate against pakistani forces. We too are on the receiving end.

Hard to believe Pakistan didn't know where they were. PA most likely knew but something held it up.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did considering the state of our western border security. But I personally believe this is propaganda, since as pointed out, the terrorist groups would execute and mutilate the soldiers instead of keeping them alive.

Yeah but executing some random Shia vs executing IRGC are not the same thing. I know IRGC border guards have been killed in action from various attacks but I have never heard of any being executed in Balochistan because it would invite a very harsh response from Iran.

All people here are forgetting that Iran and Pakistan have signed border security agreements for cooperation together during Imran Khan's visit to Iran. This news is actually an example of the success of our agreements.

The way the official Iranian statement sounds, it seems like they are kind of pissed at Pakistan that they had to go to this length by themselves. I don't think the statement would sound as critical of Pakistan if we had been involved in it in some kind of joint operation which does not seem to be the case. Also, the fact that Pakistani side is silent about this in general means there was probably minimal to zero involvement of PA here.

Sounds like a coop. Recently Pakistani forces did the same capturing terrorists. IRGC did something similar, apart from quotes of stupid members asking for revenge and Indians laughing behind our back, it looks like a coordinated action.

I had the same theory as well, for some reason, nobody on PDF was paying attention to all the action going down in Balochistan during the past week. Pakistan openly claimed to capture terrorists several times during past week. IRGC basically did the same thing except it was a hostage rescue mission but I guess this got more attention because it was reported in the news as an official operation of IRGC.

I guess Iran's line of thinking was probably that it is easier to justify violating border to do hostage rescue of their own soldiers and it was worth the risk to do it since everything else failed.

According to Iranian media reports:


Zahedan, Feb 3, IRNA - Iran's intelligence forces carried a successful operation in southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan to release two borderguards abducted by Jaish al-Zolm terrorist group two years ago.

The operation was carried out on Tuesday night according to a public relations office of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces.
The border guards had been abducted by the counter-revolutionay group of Jaish al-Zolm in southeastern Iranian borders over two years ago.
In October, 2018, some 12 Iranian borderguards were abducted by terrorist group and transported to Pakistani soil.
Five of those 12 were delivered to Iran just month after the abduction.
In March the same year, four others were released according to IRGC commander.

Iran carries operation to successfully release borderguards from captivity

Zahedan, Feb 3, IRNA - Iran's intelligence forces carried a successful operation in southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan to release two borderguards abducted by Jaish al-Zolm terrorist group two years ago.

en.irna.ir

The thing that doesn't add up about the prisoner exchange is that why would IRGC have to cross into Pakistan just for a prisoner exchange. Prisoner exchanges, especially of this kind are always done with involvement of both countries. But I'll play devil's advocate, hypothetically let's say that did happen. Maybe IRGC decided it would be easier to do prisoner exchange directly instead of involving Pakistan to complicate things.

One thing is pretty clear, regardless of what happened, PA did not know about it.

That leaves basically 2 scenarios:

1. IRGC crossed border and conducted covert hostage rescue operation.
2. IRGC crossed border and did prisoner exchange.

It's not clear what actually happened but both scenarios involve some kind of operation where IRGC crossed border and exfiltrated without knowledge of PA.

Summary
So far this is what has been reported by various sides;
Iranian media reports that there was a rescue operation conducted in Sistan region on their side.
Meanwhile select Iranian and Pakistani media/journalists report that there was a cross border operation into Pakistani territory to rescue them.
Local media reports suggest that it was a prisoner exchange as done in the preceding years near the Iranian-Pakistani border (on Iranian side) and that 4 Sunni prisoners were released in exchange for the 2 Iranian border guards.
So all in all many contradictory reports, I myself am leaning on the prisoner exchange reports due to it being more likelier however it is unconfirmed as far as i know.

I generally agree with this assessment.

I am leaning towards opinion that this was a hostage rescue operation because several sources mention that it was a heavy intelligence based operation.

You do not need intelligence for prisoner exchange but you need very good intelligence to conduct a successful hostage rescue operation.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1357307124783677441

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan confirmed Thursday that its security forces have rescued five abducted Iranian border guards, saying efforts to recover other captives are ongoing.
An anti-Iran Sunni militant organization known as Jaish al-Adl kidnapped a group of 12 security guards a month ago in the southeastern Iranian border city of Mirjaveh and took the captives to the Pakistani side of the porous frontier between the two countries.
Tehran demanded Islamabad help recover the men.
“With concerted efforts of the Pakistani LEAs (law enforcement agencies) and armed forces, five abducted Iranian guards have been safely recovered,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal announced in Islamabad.
He added the Iranians are in good health and the Pakistani military-led “concerted efforts” to recover the other guards were continuing.
The Pakistani statement came hours after the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, disclosed to reporters that the five guards were free and hosted by authorities in the neighboring country.
Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the October 15 kidnapping and demanded release of its prisoners in Iran in exchange for the abductees.
The incident occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has a long history of violence by separatist militants. It borders Pakistan’s sparsely populated province of Baluchistan.
The Iranian province has been the scene of clashes involving Iranian forces and militants as well as drug traffickers.
Iranian separatists say their violence is retaliation for what they call Iran’s oppression against Sistan-Baluchistan’s predominantly Sunni population.
Pakistan and Iran share a more than 900-kilometer-long border.
Tehran alleges that militants involved in terrorist attacks in Iran use Pakistani territory to plot them. The allegation remains a source of tension in Islamabad’s otherwise friendly and traditionally close relationship with Tehran.
The Pakistani military has recently deployed thousands of additional troops on the border to boost security. Islamabad has previously captured and handed over to Tehran leaders and members of anti-Iran groups.

So basically Iran said IRGC conducted the operation, and Pakistan said PA conducted the operation.

I have to say that Iran reporting first does give a lot more credibility to their side. Turkish media also said that Iran was the one that conducted the operation so its not looking good for Pakistani version of the story.

Pakistani statement is extremely vague and basically gives no useful information and that is putting it kindly. If they were caught off guard, this would make sense.

 

[Aspen]

At this point I am basically waiting for some clarification from ISPR for Pakistani version of this story because its pretty clear Foreign Office had no clue about this.

 

[Areesh]

Hard to believe Pakistan didn't know where they were. PA most likely knew but something held it up.



Yeah but executing some random Shia vs executing IRGC are not the same thing. I know IRGC border guards have been killed in action from various attacks but I have never heard of any being executed in Balochistan because it would invite a very harsh response from Iran.



The way the official Iranian statement sounds, it seems like they are kind of pissed at Pakistan that they had to go to this length by themselves. I don't think the statement would sound as critical of Pakistan if we had been involved in it in some kind of joint operation which does not seem to be the case. Also, the fact that Pakistani side is silent about this in general means there was probably minimal to zero involvement of PA here.



I had the same theory as well, for some reason, nobody on PDF was paying attention to all the action going down in Balochistan during the past week. Pakistan openly claimed to capture terrorists several times during past week. IRGC basically did the same thing except it was a hostage rescue mission but I guess this got more attention because it was reported in the news as an official operation of IRGC.

I guess Iran's line of thinking was probably that it is easier to justify violating border to do hostage rescue of their own soldiers and it was worth the risk to do it since everything else failed.



The thing that doesn't add up about the prisoner exchange is that why would IRGC have to cross into Pakistan just for a prisoner exchange. Prisoner exchanges, especially of this kind are always done with involvement of both countries. But I'll play devil's advocate, hypothetically let's say that did happen. Maybe IRGC decided it would be easier to do prisoner exchange directly instead of involving Pakistan to complicate things.

One thing is pretty clear, regardless of what happened, PA did not know about it.

That leaves basically 2 scenarios:

1. IRGC crossed border and conducted covert hostage rescue operation.
2. IRGC crossed border and did prisoner exchange.

It's not clear what actually happened but both scenarios involve some kind of operation where IRGC crossed border and exfiltrated without knowledge of PA.



I generally agree with this assessment.

I am leaning towards opinion that this was a hostage rescue operation because several sources mention that it was a heavy intelligence based operation.

You do not need intelligence for prisoner exchange but you need very good intelligence to conduct a successful hostage rescue operation.





So basically Iran said IRGC conducted the operation, and Pakistan said PA conducted the operation.

I have to say that Iran reporting first does give a lot more credibility to their side. Turkish media also said that Iran was the one that conducted the operation so its not looking good for Pakistani version of the story.

Pakistani statement is extremely vague and basically gives no useful information and that is putting it kindly. If they were caught off guard, this would make sense.

Abay bhai is ko Iran ki nationality dai hi do ab

Matlab itnai to Shaikh Abdullah nai Nehru k nahi uthaye thai jitnai yeh Iranion k utha raha hai

 

[Tomcats]

The thing that doesn't add up about the prisoner exchange is that why would IRGC have to cross into Pakistan just for a prisoner exchange. Prisoner exchanges, especially of this kind are always done with involvement of both countries. But I'll play devil's advocate, hypothetically let's say that did happen. Maybe IRGC decided it would be easier to do prisoner exchange directly instead of involving Pakistan to complicate things.

Actually, the prisoner exchange reportedly happened in Sistan (Iranian side) close to the border maybe but not sure how far. Honestly i find it unlikely that Iran intruded given their official statements and the release of Prisoners by Iran in exchange for the guards. It's not the first time that such an exchange has happened either hence why it is seen as more credible. But yes, hopefully Pakistan spokesperson clears up the confusion.

 

[Aspen]

Actually, the prisoner exchange reportedly happened in Sistan (Iranian side) close to the border maybe but not sure how far. Honestly i find it unlikely that Iran intruded given their official statements and the release of Prisoners by Iran in exchange for the guards. It's not the first time that such an exchange has happened either hence why it is seen as more credible. But yes, hopefully Pakistan spokesperson clears up the confusion.

It's plausible but many of the articles say it was an intelligence heavy operation. Exchange requires minimal intelligence.

It strikes me as a bit odd than the typical operation because of the way they explained it. I am reading between the lines but it definitely seems something was out of the ordinary this time.

Prisoner exchanges require some basic contact info but nothing that would suggest the need for anything resembling an intelligence based or hostage rescue mission which was said to be the case by multiple sources.

There is a difference between cross border and hostage rescue operation. They are not the same thing. Pakistan claims cross border operation, Iran claims hostage rescue operation.

Hostage rescue implies that some level of security had to be violated to free the hostage which means either the border or the hostage takers. It could be one or both.

One of the sources said the operation took place during night. An exchange during night time seems very odd to me, but if you want to cross the border and conduct a hostage raid, night is best time to do it.

 

[Windjammer]

Yea, Iranians must have used the same stealth technology as their Qaher fighter aircraft to enter Pakistan undetected......remember last time even an Iranian spy drone was wasted in the middle of the night.

 

[Ghost Hobbit]

relax
this raid happened on the computer screen only
it is as authentic as indian surgical strike claim years ago where they claimed their commandos put leopard shit on their faces to scare away guard dogs on Pakistani side of LOC and killed 100s of kashmiris to avenge Uri atrack on indian forces by Kashmiri freedom fighters.
in reality the leopard shit turned out to be bullshit and they suffocated before crossingthe border.

means...raid did happen then.

 

[Windjammer]

means...raid did happen then.

No it means Indians as always just smeared their faces with sh**.

 

[Ghost Hobbit]

No it means Indians as always just smeared their faces with sh**.

I was talking about Iranian the dudes.