Iran accuses Pakistan of links to suicide bombers

Dec 16, 2010, 11:39 GMT

Tehran - Iran on Thursday accused Pakistani officials of being connected with this week's suicide bomb attack in the south-east of the country, state media reported.

'Some local Pakistani officials are linked to the terrorist act in Chabahar,' Ali Abdollahi, the deputy minister and head of security at the Interior Ministry, told official news agency IRNA.

The officials concerned 'have granted permission for the terrorists to cross the border into Iran,' he was quoted as saying.

The coastal city of Chabahar is approximately 100 kilometres from the Pakistani border.

'The base of the terrorists is on the other side of the Pakistani border and despite several warnings by Iran, the Pakistani side has done nothing to arrest these terrorists,' Abdollahi said.

According to the latest information from the provincial governor's office, at least 34 people were killed and dozens injured Wednesday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in the city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some sources say 39 were killed and more than 100 injured.

The militant Sunni group Jundollah claimed responsibility for the attack. The group, which is believed to be heavily involved in drug-trafficking, claims to be fighting for the rights of Iran's Sunni minority in Sistan-Baluchistan.

The spokesman of the parliamentary security commission also said that the terrorists involved in Wednesday's attack were trained in Pakistan.

'Pakistan should clarify its stance towards these terrorists and our government should take serious and practical steps in this regard,' Kazem Jalali told IRNA.

Officials had earlier accused the United States and Israeli intelligence services of supporting Jundollah.

US President Barack Obama has condemned the suicide attack as 'a disgraceful and cowardly act,' while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned it 'in the strongest possible terms.'

One terrorist was killed along with the victims when his bomb went off, officials said.

Accounts vary of what happened to additional bombers, said to have numbered between one and three. The intelligence services said one further attacker was killed, another arrested at the site, and a fourth caught trying to cross into Pakistan.

Jundollah leader Abdolmalek Rigi was arrested by Iran earlier this year and hanged in June in the Evin prison in Tehran.

Since then the group, which is said to be also linked to the terrorist network al-Qaeda, has vowed to take revenge and is thought to have been behind several deadly bombings in the province.

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