Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the IRGC, on Wednesday announced that it managed to free two of its border guards who were abducted and kept inside Pakistan's territory since 2018. The soldiers were last of the group of 14 Iranian border guards who were held hostage by a Pakistan-based radical Wahhabi terrorist group called Jeish Al-Adl. Iran's elite force rescued its servicemen right under Pakistan's nose in a successful intelligence operation on Tuesday night.
"A successful operation was carried out last Tuesday night to rescue two kidnapped border guards who were taken as hostages by Jaish ul-Adl organization two and a half years ago," the IRGC said in a statement.
Jeish Al-Adl attacks Iran
Jeish Al-Adl terrorist group has been engaged in cross border attacks into Iran's Southeastern region from South-West Pakistan. It is the same terror group that claimed responsibility for an attack in February 2019, which killed and wounded dozens of IRGC soldiers in the province.
It was in October 16, 2018, when Jeish Al-Adl terrorists abducted the Iranian border guards from the city of Merkava in Sistan and the province of Balochistan and kept them in Pakistan territory since. Five of them were released a month later on November 15 and another four were rescued by Pakistan Army in March 2019.
The Afghan and Pakistan terrorist groups often attack Iranian military forces on the southeastern border areas. This is despite Tehran's advice to beef up security at the common border on both sides to prevent further terrorist attacks on Iran's forces. Iran has criticized Pakistani army and border police's lack of security and control across the shared borders.