TEHRAN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The second Belgian tourist abducted with his female companion by armed bandits in southeastern Iran last month was released Friday, according to Iran's interior ministry.

    Stefaan Boeve, 28, who was taken hostage by bandits involved in narcotic drugs trafficking last month and transferred to Pakistan later, was released on Friday thanks to efforts and pursuance of some security officials, the ministry said on its website.

    Boeve was transferred to Iran Friday and will be soon delivered to his country's concerned officials, it added.

    Boeve and another Belgian female citizen Carla Van den Eeckhout were kidnapped in August by 15 armed bandits and taken into the mountains when the two were visiting the historic sites near the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Iranian province of Kerman.

    Local police has said the kidnappers had demanded the Iranian authorities to release their leader's brother in return for the freedom of the two Belgian hostages.

    Eeckhout, 37, was released two days after the abduction.

    Kerman province and its nearby Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Pakistan and Afganistan have seen a string of attacks and kidnappings in the past years, which the Iranian authorities blamed on a Sunni group called Jundallah.