Iran summons Pakistani ambassador over bombings

Feb 18, 2007, 10:03 GMT

Tehran - Iran has summoned the Pakistani ambassador to Tehran over the recent bombings in Zahedan in south-east Iran, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said Sunday.

11 people were killed and more than 30 injured after a bomb planted in a car went off last Wednesday in Zahedan and hit a bus belonging to the paramilitary revolutionary guards (IRGC).

The victims mainly belonged to the administrative staff of the IRGC.

Also on Friday a percussion bomb exploded on a road in Zahedan next to a girls' school and unfinished residential complexes without causing any casualties.

The radical Sunni group Jundallah (God's Brigade), which claimed responsibility for both attacks, is believed to have infiltrated Iran from Pakistan, which borders Iran in the south-east.

The Iranian press has criticized Pakistan for becoming the backyard for terrorists infiltrating Iranian soil.

The spokesman said in a press conference in Tehran that Iran and Pakistan have agreed to form a committee for improving border security.

Hosseini said that several suspects have been arrested in connection to the bombings and according to their confessions, 'aliens' were involved in the incidents.

Tehran has accused the United States and Britain of using radical Sunni groups like Jundullah for sowing discord between Iran's Muslim Shiite majority and the Sunni minority.

Zahedan, located in the Sistan-Beluchistan province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, is mainly a centre for drug-trafficking.

A large number of IRGC anti-narcotic forces are stationed in the Sistan-Beluchistan province and frequently clash with not only local but also Afghan and Pakistani drug traffickers who try to smuggle drugs via Iran to European markets.