Pakistan yesterday blamed a massive suicide attack in Iran on forces wanting to spoil relations between the countries and denied knowing the whereabouts of the alleged mastermind wanted by Tehran.
The comments from Pakistan’s foreign ministry came as Iran stepped up pressure on Islamabad, saying the group accused of launching Sunday’s attack was based in Pakistan and urging its ally to confront the rebels.
Iran has accused Pakistan, as well as Britain and the US, of involvement in the bombing that killed more than 40 people and struck at the heart of its security apparatus — the elite Revolutionary Guards.
“There are forces which are out to spoil our relations with Iran. But our ties are strong enough to counter these machinations,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and “assured him of Pakistan’s full cooperation in the fight against terrorism,” Basit said.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Ahmadinejad had urged Zardari to confront a Sunni rebel group that Tehran says was behind the bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province, a hotbed of Sunni insurgency.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the group responsible was based in Pakistan and that its members regularly infiltrated the border and launched attacks inside Iran.
“There is no question given the excellent relations between us that Pakistani territory be allowed to be used for terrorist acts against Iran,” Basit told reporters.
Iranian officials said the attack was claimed by Sunni militant rebel leader Abdolmalek Rigi, whose Jundallah (“Soldiers of God”) group has for years been waging war against the Shiite rule of Iran.
The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that Tehran will demand that Pakistan hand over Rigi.
“We don’t know the whereabouts of Rigi,” the Pakistan spokesman said. “As Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, Rigi is not in Pakistan.”
US monitors the SITE Intelligence Group said that Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack to avenge “the wounds of the Baluch people, which have been bleeding for years without end.”
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