Four Iranian border guards who had been released earlier by a Sunni rebel group outside of Iran returned home on Sunday, local media reported.

In a message on Sunday, Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli said efforts by security and diplomatic bodies and locals had borne fruit, and four of the five abducted border guards had been freed and reunited with their families, according to Press TV.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani also called on all Iranian officials to make every effort to clarify the fate of the remaining abducted border guard.

Earlier on Friday the Pakistan-based Jaish Al-Adl group from Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province announced that it had released four of the five Iranian border guards it abducted in Iran's southeastern border region in February.

In March Jaish Al-Adl said they killed one of them whom they claimed to have taken as hostages.

The group also claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in a mountainous area near Saravan city bordering Pakistan in Sistan and Baluchestan province in October, in which at least 14 border guards were killed. It said it's fighting for the rights of Sunni Baluch minority in Iran.

Sistan and Baluchestan province, mostly populated by Sunni Muslims, has been the scene of bloody clashes between the Sunni rebels and the Iranian security forces.

Rahmani-Fazli urged Pakistan to take greater responsibility for controlling and ensuring security along its border with Iran to prevent rebel groups from undermining the cordial Tehran-Islamabad relations.