An Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Pakistan in 2008 has been freed, Iran's consul general in the Pakistani city of Peshawar said on Tuesday.

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped Heshmatollah Attarzadeh Niyaki, the commercial attache at Iran's consulate in Peshawar, on Nov. 13, 2008.

"He has been freed," Abbas Ali Abdullahi, head of the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, told Reuters. "I have no information about where he was recovered, but it's confirmed that he has reached Iran."

The gunmen ambushed Niyaki in his car as he was on his way to the consulate from his home, shooting dead a policeman guarding him.

Iran condemned the kidnapping at the time as a "terrorist act".

A senior Afghan diplomat was kidnapped in the city weeks before Niyaki was abducted. He is still missing.

Reuters