Iran’s Interior Ministry has announced that the five border officers abducted in Sistan-Baluchistan are alive and well, despite last week’s statements by their abductors, Jeysh-ol-Adl, about killing one of the captives.

The Jeysh-ol-Adl militant group published a statement on Twitter last week that they would kill one of their Iranian hostages. According to the Tadbir website, Hosseinali Amiri, the deputy interior minister, said: “I do not believe they will act on this threat.”

He said: “There are actions being taken that destroy the possibility of such a thing happening.” He added that those actions cannot be publicized at this time.

Amiri said officials are very hopeful about the release of the hostages and they are going to have meetings with a number of Pakistani officials in Tehran next week to discuss the issue.

The five Iranian border officials were taken hostage on February 7 near the Iranian-Pakistani border, and the following day, Jeysh-ol-Adl, a Sunni militant group in the region that claims to fight for the rights of Sunni minorities in Iran, took responsibility for the abductions.

Two days ago, the group announced on Twitter that Iran had executed one of its members; therefore, it intended to execute one of its own hostages.

Radio Zamaneh