An arson attack on a bank killed five people on Monday in the south-eastern Iranian city of Zahedan where a mosque bombing killed 25 only days earlier, state media said.State-owned Press TV said the arson attack targeted the Mehr Financial and Credit Institute, linked to the paramilitary Basij militia. The state news agency said the city was now calm and police had a number of suspects in custody.
On Friday, gunmen fired on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's campaign office in Zahedan, injuring three people. Clashes erupted on Sunday in the city after rumours that a local Sunni cleric had been attacked. A militant group, Jundullah, claimed responsibility for the mosque bombing on Thursday. The group has been fighting a low-level campaign against Iran's Shia leadership for years.
Pakistan's ambassador to Iran was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry over the bombing, the state news agency reported. "The extremist groups in the region are linked with some foreign forces in Afghanistan," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mutaqi told reporters. Mutaqi told reporters that Iran and Pakistan have joined forces "in combating insecurity" since Asif Zardari became Pakistani president.