Armed bandits kidnapped 30 passengers, including an education ministry official, on Chabahar-Iranshahr road in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan on Sunday, an informed source said.Semi-official "Fars" news agency said that the bandits also attacked a number of passing cars, set them on fire, wounded some of the passengers and took some people hostage. The agency's reports said that the bandits have abducted the director of the education ministry's regional office in Chabahar, Ali Zare'ee, who was on a mission to Zahedan. A local ministry official said that Zare'ee had been accompanied by a Balouch expert at the time of abduction, who was freed by the hostage-takers. "Yet, they abducted Zare'ee, because he is a Fars (and not a Balouch)," Mahmoud Keshani said. According to Keshani, people believe that the abduction has been exercised on the basis of a premeditated plan, considering that Zare'ee has been the only official among hostages.
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In February Jundollah (God's Soldiers), a shadowy Sunni Muslim group led by Rigi, claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus owned by Iran's Revolutionary Guards that killed 11 people.