Mohammad Bakhsh Abbasi was summoned after Iran’s state television quoted the
pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya as saying that the Jandullah (Soldiers of God) group
said it was behind Thursday’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. |
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