One of the five Iranian border guards kidnapped by a Sunni militant group on the Iran-Pakistan border has been killed.

Jaish al-Adl, a Baluch militant group, announced the execution of Jamshid Danaeifar March 22. After conflicting statements by Iranian officials, the news was confirmed March 24 by Iranian security officials from Sistan-Baluchistan province. Danaeifar, the 27-yeard-old sole officer among the border guards kidnapped in February in Sistan-Baluchistan, had a 10-day-old son.

It has been reported that in exchange for the border guards, the Pakistan-based Jaish al-Adl wants Iran to release 50 members of its group, 200 other Sunni prisoners being held in Iran and 50 female Sunni prisoners in Syria. Ibrahim Hamidi, head prosecutor in Sistan-Baluchistan province, was reported by Fars News today, March 25, as saying that Jaish al-Adl has never officially made the request for a prisoner exchange but that the claims made in the media were “illogical.”

Iranian officials had previously threatened to enter Pakistan’s borders in search of the guards if Pakistan was unable or unwilling to do so. Pakistani officials denied that their efforts were inadequate. “We searched our land inch by inch for the hostages but found no signs of them,” Tasnim Aslam, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, told the BBC yesterday.