Japan said yesterday it was working with Tehran to free a 23-year-old Japanese university student kidnapped by suspected bandits as he traveled alone in lawless southeastern Iran.
Iranian security forces were tracking the armed men, who abducted the student on Monday as he headed to visit the ancient citadel in Bam, a tourist attraction devastated by a 2003 quake, Iran's state IRNA news agency said.
"It is truly deplorable that this happened. We are making our utmost efforts in our foremost goal, which is to bring him back safely," Japan's chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.
Diplomats at the Japanese embassy in Tehran spoke with the student and confirmed he was safe as of Wednesday, a foreign ministry official said.
assistance
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said he had asked his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki for assistance.
"I asked him for his cooperation in safely rescuing the kidnapped person," Komura said.
"He said they have identified the whereabouts of the abductee, and he told me he will make efforts to resolve the issue," said Komura, whose ministry had set up an emergency task force.
The kidnap victim was identified as Satoshi Nakamura, a student of sociology at Yokohama National University, an official at the school near Tokyo said.
Reports said Nakamura had initially been part of a volunteer group involved in education and traveled for two months around Asia. He crossed into Iran from Pakistan, public broadcaster NHK said.
Japan has asked Iran to contact the group responsible for the abduction, officials said.
Japanese authorities declined comment on who was behind the kidnapping, but Komura said that the Iranian authorities "are close to identifying the group responsible."
NHK quoted an unnamed senior foreign ministry official as saying that bandits were believed to be responsible, and that there was no indication they had any political motive.
Machimura, the chief Cabinet secretary, said Japan would likely raise the warning level for travelers heading to southeastern Iran, an area near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan known for rampant banditry.
warning
"It is time to elevate the warning level by a step to `recommended to postpone trips' from `recommended to reconsider making trips,'" Machimura told reporters.
In August, bandits seized two Belgians in southeastern Iran. One was freed two days later, but the other was held for 34 days. Belgium said it paid no ransom for their release.
Jundullah, a shadowy militant group from Iran's Sunni minority, has carried out a number of attacks in the area in recent years.
It claimed one in February in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, in which 11 elite Revolutionary Guards were killed and 31 wounded.
Japan has historically had cordial relations with Iran, both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Japan has taken a lower profile than its Western allies in pressuring Tehran on its nuclear drive, although Tokyo last year pulled out of a project to develop Iran's largest onshore oil field.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS