TEHRAN - A day after 14 Iranian guards were kidnapped by militants in the border region with Pakistan, Pakistan on Tuesday said its military forces were working closely their counterparts in Iran to trace them.

“No effort will be spared to assist our Iranian brothers in finding the Iranian guards,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “Both militaries, under a joint mechanism established since last year, are working to ascertain the whereabouts of Iranian guards."

The abductees were stationed at a border post in Iran's Mirjaveh area when they came under attack from “counterrevolutionary groups,” said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement. Tehran had urged Islamabad to cooperate in securing freedom for Iranian guards.

"The Pakistani government should immediately implement all necessary means and measures to free border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran and arrest the notorious terrorists," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday.

He added that Iranian foreign minister's assistant in West Asia affairs had spoke to Pakistani envoy to Tehran to help secure the release of abductees "within the framework of mutual relations, the principle of good neighborliness and commitments under mutual agreements and regulations of the international law."

In a statement issued on Tuesday, IRGC said terrorists have kidnapped the Iranian forces, including local Basij volunteer forces and border guards, near the town of Mirjaveh on the Pakistani border.

"We expect Pakistan to confront these terrorist groups that are supported by some regional states and immediately release the kidnapped Iranian forces," the IRGC said. Traditionally, the militant groups supported by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have been using Pakistan as a platform to attack Iran.

The so-called Jaish ul-Adl terrorist group – which is based in Pakistan –claimed responsibility on its Twitter account.