Iran Says Seizes Explosives on Pakistan Border
By REUTERS
Published: December 22, 2012 at 10:28 AM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has seized 20 bombs and other explosives on its
border with Pakistan, a police official was quoted as saying on
Saturday.
He called on Islamabad to control its border regions properly.
Iran's impoverished southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering
Pakistan, faces serious security problems including bombings and
frequent clashes between police and drug dealers and bandits.
"Border agents learned that subversive groups wished to enter our
territory," said Ahmad Reza-Radan, Iran's deputy police chief, according
to the Mehr news agency.
"The agents were successful in identifying and seizing a large shipment of explosives which had entered our country."
The haul included 20 bombs, Radan said. He did not say when exactly the
explosives were found. One person had been arrested in connection but
others had escaped to Pakistan.
"We request that the Pakistani government act on its obligations in
controlling border regions, because its border has become a way for
bandit traffic," he was quoted as saying.
Radan did not identify the arrested person or the suspected groups involved.
In the last major attack in Zahedan, the provincial capital of
Sistan-Baluchestan, a suicide bomber killed dozens at a Shiite Muslim
mosque in 2010.
That attack was claimed by militant Sunni group Jundollah (God's
Soldiers), which accuses Tehran of discriminating against Sunnis. Since
2003 it has claimed a number of other attacks and kidnappings in Iran.
Tehran has linked Jundollah to the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda network and
accused the United States of backing Jundollah to create instability in
the country, a charge Washington denies.
Iran rejects allegations by Western rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.
(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati, edited by Richard Meares) COPY bal.nytimes.com
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