TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two Belgian tourists have been kidnapped by bandits while visiting the historic sites near the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Iran, local Fars news agency reported on Monday.
Local police said the kidnappers have demanded the
Iranian authorities release their leader's brother in return for the two Belgian
hostages' freedom.
"Ismaeel Shahbakhsh, leader of a bandit group in the
area in the area, abducted the Belgian couple on Sunday near Fahraj, on the
borders of the Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces," Colonel Abbas Ebrahimi
was quoted as saying.
Fahraj, 60 km east of Bam, is situated on the road
between Bam and Zahedan, the capital of the restive Sistan-Baluchestan province
which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"They (the two Belgians) have been taken to an
unknown place. The kidnapper has given guarantees that if his brother is
released from prison, he will release the two tourists," Ebrahimi said.
Gol-Mohammad Shahbakhsh, Ismaeel's brother, had been
arrested by Iranian police in a clash in the area near Zahedan, according to
Fars.
Iran's official IRNA news agency reported earlier
that two Belgian tourists, a married couple aged 27 and 30, have gone missing
since Sunday when they were travelling by a car in Fahraj district.
Local police and security forces were patrolling the
region to find the missing couple, Governor of Bam Majid E'temadi said.
Sistan-Baluchestan province and its nearby province
of Kerman have been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings in the past
years, which the Iranian authorities blamed on a Sunni group called
Jundallah.
BRUSSELS, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Belgian government said on Monday that it
was trying to verify reports that one Belgian couple had been abducted in Iran.
Francois Dumont, spokesman of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said
that the Belgian authorities were still waiting for the official confirmation of
the nationality and the names of the two missing tourists. Full story
