Army denies Iranian 'intelligence operation' inside Pakistan to rescue kidnapped soldiers

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers stand in front of a closed gate of a border post in Taftan near Iran on February 25, 2020. (REUTERS/File)

• The head of military’s media wing calls the media reports “absolutely false”
• “It is fake news and Iran has denied the story itself,” Maj Gen Iftikhar says

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani army this week denied Iran had carried out an “intelligence operation” inside its territory to rescue Iranian soldiers who had been abducted over two years ago. 
Turkish media last week quoted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as saying it had freed two soldiers in an intelligence operation inside Pakistan’s territory. The two kidnapped border guards were part of a group of soldiers taken hostage over two years ago by the Jaish ul-Adl militant group. 
Talking to a local news channel on Monday, the head of the military’s media wing, ISPR, called the reports fabricated.
“It is absolutely false,” Major General Babar Iftikhar said. “It is fake news and Iran has denied the story itself.”
Jaish Al-Adl kidnapped a group of 12 security guards in October 2018 in the southeastern Iranian border city of Mirjaveh and took the captives to the Pakistani side of the porous frontier between the two countries. Military officials formed a joint committee between Tehran and Islamabad to help free the kidnapped guards.
Five of the soldiers were released on November 15, 2018, and four were rescued by the Pakistani army on March 21, 2019.