TEHRAN - On Monday, unidentified gunmen abducted 12 Iranian engineers in Afghanistan’s western province of Farah, located around 700 kilometers away from the capital city of Kabul.

According to reports, the engineers were working for a construction company in Farah Province and were building a road in western Afghanistan.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast confirmed the reports on Monday and said, “We are pursuing the issue.”
The Foreign Ministry is pursuing the case through the Afghan Embassy in Tehran and the Iranian Embassy in Kabul, Mehmanparast stated.
He added that Iran has urged the Afghan government to fulfill its responsibility toward the Iranian nationals and take “quick” and “serious” measures to obtain their release.
Afghan provincial government spokesman Naqibullah Farahi told the Mehr News Agency correspondent based in Herat that the incident took place on Sunday evening and 10 Iranian engineers were taken hostage.
He said the abduction was carried out by armed members of Taliban.
However, the Taliban spokesman has not yet commented on the abduction.
Farahi also announced that five Afghan nationals were abducted along with the engineers.
There was discrepancy in the number of hostages.
According to AP, General Sayed Mohammad, the police chief for Farah Province, said on Monday that militants in the area claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and threatened to kill the hostages if work on the road is not halted.
“For the time being the road construction has stopped. Police have launched a search operation in the area where they were kidnapped,” he said.
Mohammad added that according to his information, there were 13 Iranians taken along with two Afghans while driving toward their work site in two vehicles.
AP also quoted the director of public works for the province, Ghulman Hazrat Shahiq, as saying on Monday that the engineers worked for a company called Jahidi Nasri Tehran, contracted to create 75 miles (121 kilometers) of road in Farah and has completed about half