Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on Tuesday conducted a surgical strike and freed two of its soldiers in an intelligence operation inside Pakistan.
"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 its statement.
The soldiers, according to the statement, were successfully transferred back to Iran.
A Pakistan-based radical Wahhabi terrorist group 'Jaish ul-Adl' had on October 16, 2018, kidnapped 12 IRGC guards to the Pakistani territory in the city of Merkava in Sistan and Baluchestan Province on the border between the two countries, the Andalou report said.
Also Read| New Light Combat Aircraft deal takes HAL's order book to Rs 83,000 crore
Military officials reportedly formed a joint committee between Tehran and Islamabad to free the kidnapped IRCG soldiers.
Five of the soldiers were released on November 15, 2018, while four more Iranian soldiers were rescued by the Pakistani army on March 21, 2019.
Declared a terrorist organisation by Tehran, Jaish ul-Adl is pursuing an armed struggle against the Iranian government, claiming to defend the rights of Baloch Sunnis in Iran.
The terrorist group has been staging cross-border attacks into southeast Iran from southwest Pakistan, had also claimed responsibility for the February 2019 attack on Iran's Basij paramilitary base which killed and wounded dozens of IRGC members after their bus came under terrorist attack in the province
The group has bases in southwestern Pakistan and started operations after recruiting the remnants of Jundullah, a Sunni militant organisation based in Sistan and Baluchestan in Iran, and reorganising them. Iran had captured leaders of Jundullah and dismantled the terrorist organization years earlier.
Also Read| Donald Trump not to testify voluntarily for Senate impeachment trial
Then early in March 2015, Pakistani sources told the country's media that authorities in Southwestern Pakistan had arrested the ringleader of Jaish ul-
Adl terrorist group as he was travelling on a bus from the lawless border area.
Salam Rigi, the cousin of Jundallah terrorist group's ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi, was seized by Pakistani authorities who were tipped off about his movements. The bus he was travelling on was intercepted some 50 km from Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan, a security official said on the condition of anonymity.
Salam Rigi was accused of involvement in suicide bombings in Iran and Pakistan, as well as sending terrorists to the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.
Other sources said the terrorist arrested was Abdo-Sattar Rigi (Abdolmalek's brother), explaining that he was carrying his cousin's ID card at the time of arrest, but further investigations revealed his true identity.
