The four citizens of Kosovo who were arrested on Tuesday by the Serbian authorities in Merdare have been released. One of them stated that they were told by the Serbian police that their detention occurred due to political issues related to the situation in the north of the country.

Dervish Maliqi told reporters that they were taken from the border by two civilians and then sent to Kurshumli.

“What they could do is 48 hours of detention as a suspect, more than that they had no facts. According to the (Serbian) police, it has nothing to do with the barracks, this is only politics, because of the tensions in the north”, he said.

Currently, Serbia is also holding three Kosovo police officers whom it kidnapped on Wednesday.

The three border officials were kidnapped by Serbian forces during a patrol on the border line in the north of Kosovo while they were on duty, deep inside the territory of Kosovo, to prevent the use of illegal routes.