Iran on Sunday said it had summoned the Pakistani ambassador following two bomb blasts in its southeastern border city of Zahedan, one of which killed 11 elite Revolutionary Guards. After the meeting with ambassador Shafqat Saeed, the two countries resolved to form a committee to improve security over their shared borders, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “The Pakistani ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry to give explanations. Discussions were undertaken and a committee was formed between the two countries to reinforce border security.”
A car bomb attack in Zahedan, a city 40 kilometres from the Pakistan border, on Wednesday killed 11 Revolutionary Guards, followed by late night clashes and a percussion bomb on Friday which lightly wounded one person. “The investigation and the confessions show that foreigners are implicated in these actions,” Hosseini added, without specifying further. Local officials said the unrest bore suspicious hallmarks of involvement by the United States and Britain, reiterating previous allegations of Western trouble-making in the southeastern Sistan-Balochistan province. According to unconfirmed website reports, Wednesday’s attack was claimed by a shadowy Sunni militant group, Jundallah, which has been blamed for a string of armed incidents in the volatile province. |