TEHRAN - Iran summoned PakistanÂ’s ambassador over the deadly bombing of a mosque in the southeast after Sunni rebels reportedly claimed responsibility, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
| I hear the Syrians did it ... |
Mohammad Bakhsh Abbasi was summoned after IranÂ’s state television quoted the pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya as saying that the Jandullah (Soldiers of God) group said it was behind ThursdayÂ’s mosque attack which killed 25 people.
According to state television, the chief of the Iranian armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, said on Saturday that Iran “has located the base of the group’s head and informed Pakistan’s government of his arrest.”
The Iranian authorities said they immediately arrested three men involved in the bombing. The trio were executed on Saturday morning near the mosque in Zahedan city, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.
In recent years, the restive province has been the scene of a deadly insurgency by Jundallah, which is strongly opposed to the government of predominantly Shiite Iran. The province has a substantial Sunni minority and lies on a major narcotics-smuggling route from Afghanistan and Pakistan. |