Iran Tells Pakistan to Control Terrorists After Suicide Bombing

Monday, October 19, 2009 Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Oct. 19 -- Iran told Pakistan to control terrorist groups operating from Pakistani territory after a suicide bombing killed 42 people, including commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps.
“We have heard that certain officials in Pakistan cooperate with main agents of these terrorist attacks in the eastern part of the country,” state-run Press TV cited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying after a Cabinet meeting in Tehran late yesterday.
Pakistan must eradicate the Sunni Muslim Jundallah group, which claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday in Sistan- Baluchistan province, Ahmadinejad said. The province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has experienced political unrest and several attacks on military officials in the Shiite- led Iranian regime in recent years.
Pakistan is battling Taliban forces in its tribal region bordering Afghanistan and is also under pressure from India to control terrorists blamed for the attacks last year in Mumbai that killed 166 people and halted five years of peace talks between the South Asian neighbors.
Iran’s government says Jundallah, or the “Army of God,” is trying to destabilize the Sunni-dominated province from bases in Pakistan. Iran’s population of more than 66 million is 89 percent Shiite Muslim.
The Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned Pakistan’s envoy in Tehran to protest the terrorists’ use of Pakistani territory to organize attacks against Iran, Press TV reported.
Zardari Comment
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, saying Pakistan will continue to work with Iran to curb militancy and exterminate extremists, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit refuted that Jundallah was operating inside Pakistan and said some elements want to disrupt the good relations between Pakistan and Iran, APP said.
The suicide bombing occurred in Pishin at a conference between Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders, Press TV said. General Nur-Ali Shushtari, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, General Mohammad-Zadeh, the Guards commander in Sistan-Baluchistan, the commander in the town of Iranshahr and the head of the Amir al-Momenin unit, were among those killed, according to Iran’s state-run Fars News agency.
In May, at least 21 people were killed and almost 200 were injured when militants bombed a mosque in Zahedan in the province. Jundallah said it carried out that attack and also took responsibility for the February 2007 bombing of a bus in Zahedan that killed 11 civilian employees of the Revolutionary Guards.
Disrupt Security
“The goal of the terrorists is to disturb the security of the Sistan-Baluchistan province,” Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani told lawmakers. “They do not want to have economic progress in this region. But certainly the Guards will react with additional forces to establish security.”
The Guards have a chain of command separate from the country’s regular armed forces and responsibilities that include safeguarding the ideals of the 1979 revolution. They are in charge of security in Sistan-Baluchistan.
The Iranian government has repeatedly alleged the U.S. and the U.K. are promoting an insurgency by Iran’s ethnic minorities, including Sunni Baluchis in Sistan-Baluchistan.
“The world arrogance, by provoking its agents in the region, carried out a terrorist attack on a popular meeting between the Guards and the heads of tribes,” the Guards said in a statement, state television reported. Iranian authorities routinely refer to the U.S. as the global or world “arrogance.”
“We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said yesterday in Washington. “Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are completely false.” Posted by BiodunIginla at 1:26 AM Labels: bbc news, biodun iginla, iran, nasra ismail, pakistan 0 comments:

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