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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan may hand over Jundullah men to Iran |
| 2008-05-25 |
| Pakistan is said to be “threatening” to turn over to Iran six members of a tribal militant group Iran claims are CIA “spies”, according to ABC News. The American television network reports that the group, Jundullah, operates in Balochistan on both sides of the border between Iran and Pakistan and has carried out a number of violent attacks on Iranian army facilities and officers inside the country. The CIA has denied any direct ties with the group, but US officials have said that officers frequently meet and advise Jundullah leaders, and current and former intelligence officers are working to prevent the men from being sent to Iran. The six Jundullah members were taken into custody by Pakistani authorities last week, and the Iranian Mehr News Agency reported Pakistan would soon extradite the men to Iran, where they would likely be put on trial as spies and face execution. Officials told ABC the group’s leader, Abdel Malik Regi, was not among those arrested by Pakistan. ABC News quoted one American official as saying, “The new Pakistan leaders have said they are going to do it, but they are saying a lot of things and trying to make a lot of deals. If they are seeking stability inside the country, why would they want to inflame people in this region?” Iranian officials claimed this week that the US had “a hand” in an April 12 bomb attack at a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people, according to Mehr News Agency, quoting Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei. “The US is behind many events in Iran and the region with the aim of bringing insecurity,” the Intelligence Minister said. “We have proper documentations in this regard,” the Minister told the news agency’s reporters. A senior US official said Iran’s claims “are nonsense, ludicrous.” |
| Posted by:Fred |