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              Pakistani Jihadis Claim Execution of Iranian Hostage

   by Maryam Manzoori

   News about an Iranian border guard killed by a Sunni insurgent group
   has become controversial.
   Iranian deputy interior ministry, who previously confirmed killing of
   the Iranian border guard by a Sunni Jihadist group, in a new statement
   said he hoped the news not to be true. Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli, warned
   the issue will affect the diplomatic talks between Iran and Pakistan by
   making them more complicated.
   The Sunni insurgent group, calling itself Jaish al-Adl (Army of
   Justice), seized five Iranian border guards at an Iran-Pakistan border
   zone on Feb 8. The group claimed responsibility on its Twitter account
   for the abduction and posted photographs on Facebook and a 15 minute
   video in their [1]YouTube account allegedly showing the captive guard.
   Jaish al-Adl, considered as a terrorist group by Iran, claimed on March
   13 that it has hanged Jamshid Danaei-Fard and executed him.
   Initially rejected by Iranian interior ministry, the news was later
   confirmed by Sistan-Baluchistan provincial officials, home to a large
   Sunni minority of ethnic Baluch. The controversy made Iran calling
   Pakistan to take an official step and state its "Official position".
   Iran has protested the kidnappings and accused Pakistani authorities of
   failing to protect their shared border. Tehran believed the five held
   in Pakistani territory and dispatched a delegation to Islamabad to
   pressure Pakistan to free five Iranian frontier guards. Iran accuses
   Pakistan to support terrorists.
   One day after Tehran said it might send forces into Pakistan to free
   kidnapped border guards if Ialamabad did not take measure to secure
   their release, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry made and statement and urged
   Iran to respect its borders. It also said it was possible the
   kidnappers, along with the abducted guards, were still hiding within
   the Iranian territory.
   Jaish al-Adl in its latest statement issued on Sunday, March 24,
   threatened to kill another hostage "if Iran does not free Sunni
   prisoners". The group had previously said it would not free the border
   guards unless 50 Jaish al-Adl members held in Syria, as well as 50
   Jaish al-Adl members and 200 other Sunni inmates held in Iranian
   prisons freed.
   Despite Twitter being blocked in Iran, the hashtag
   [2]#Freeiraniansoldiers became viral on Twitter after the kidnapping
   and tens of thousands of outraged tweets came in support of the
   abductees.
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   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/pakistani-jihadis-claim-execution-of-
   iranian-hostage/1878345.html

References

   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUSUtxVxer8
   2. http://twitter.com/search?q=%23freeiraniansoldiers
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/pakistani-jihadis-claim-execution-of-iranian-hostage/1878345.html