Militants killed four Iranian policemen and kidnapped at least one other in a late-night ambush in a sensitive border province before fleeing towards Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday.The clash in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan follows an upsurge of violence in the area. Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said that four police were killed, one abducted and another wounded in the clash on Tuesday. Local police chief Esmael Ahmadi-Mogadam said earlier that four were taken hostage and two killed. “The rebels who were in two cars fled towards Pakistan,” Ahmadi Mogadam told the IRNA agency. He complained about the “lack of cooperation from Pakistan to fight against these rebels” adding that “this position is unacceptable”.
However, a border official in Pakistan said he had no knowledge of any such incident and dismissed Iranian complaints that its frontier security was lax. “We intercept any illegal movement and the two sides have signed several agreements for strict border control and counter-narcotics cooperation,” said Captain Shahid, a spokesman for the Pakistan frontier security force in Quetta.