TEHRAN, Dec 4: Militants killed 16 policemen they kidnapped in southeast Iran in June, the Mehr news agency reported on Thursday, quoting a high-ranking police officer.

Deputy police commander Ahmad Reza Radan said “all policemen were martyred by Abdolmalek Rigi terrorist group”, without actually giving the number killed.

The Jundullah group claimed they captured 16 Iranian border policemen on June 12 at a checkpoint in Saravan, before taking them across the border into Pakistan.

“The result of the Saravan incident investigation committee comprising the personnel of interior, intelligence, foreign affairs ministries and the police has shown that all of our loved ones have been martyred by Jundullah terrorists,” Radan added.He said officials are studying ways “to receive the bodies of these martyrs”.

Earlier on Thursday, the Shaheed (Martyrs) Foundation said “seven policemen who were captured in June at the police station in the town of Saravan in June (in Sistan-Baluchestan province) have been killed”.

They were named as “Alireza Esmaeelpour, Mohammad Ehsanpour, Hassan Safari, Ali Kheydeh, Morteza Kariznoui, Ahmad Keivanlou and Javad Hassanzadeh” by the foundation, which said the bodies had not been returned to Iran. The Shaheed Foundation has offices around Iran and looks after the families of those considered as martyrs in the Islamic republic.

In early September, an Iranian police commander said the group had released one of the policemen who said his colleagues were still alive.

The Sunni group has been blamed for a string of attacks and kidnappings in Sistan-Baluchestan province.—AFP