4 KILLED IN BOMBING IN IRAN’S CHABAHAR
INDIA SHOWS CONCERN ‘Perpetrators should be brought to justice’, says external affairs ministry
TEHRAN: A suicide car bomber attacked a police station in the southeastern Iranian port city of Chabahar on Thursday, killing four people and leaving nearly 40 wounded, state TV reported.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, though a local news agency blamed Ansar al-Furqan, a Sunni jihadi group for the bombing.
Late on Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused “foreign-backed terrorists” for the attack. “Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we’ve made it clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished,” he tweeted.
State television interrupted its regular broadcast to report the attack as such assaults are rare in Iran.
Rahmdel Bameri, a provincial official, told state TV that a suicide attacker driving a vehicle loaded with explosives drove up to the police headquarters. He said police officers blocked the vehicle and started firing at the driver, who then detonated his explosives.
India, which has a major stake in the development of Chabahar port for shipping supplies to wartorn Afghanistan, strongly condemned the “despicable terrorist attack” and expressed condolences to the government and people of Iran.
“The perpetrators behind this dastardly attack should be brought to justice expeditiously. There can be no justification for any act of terror,” said a statement from the external affairs ministry.
India has been helping develop the port so that it can ferry supplies to Afghanistan while bypassing Pakistan. It is also seen as a counter to Pakistan’s Gwadar port, located about 80 km from Chabahar. Under the agreement between India and Iran, New Delhi will operate two berths in Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million.
Iranian state TV also aired footage of smoke rising over the city.
State television said two police officers were killed, lowering an initially reported death toll of three without explanation.
State authorities did not identify who was behind the attack. No militant group immediately said it was behind the bombing. However, Iranian news agencies Tasnim and Mehr, blamed the attack on Ansar al-Furqan, a Sunni jihadi group.
Ansar al-Furqan is known to operate in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province, which sees occasional attacks by Baloch separatists and drug traffickers. A year ago, the group claimed to have blown up an oil pipeline in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province.
Chabahar is home to a new port recently built and is an economic free zone.
The attack comes as Iran’s economy reels in the wake of the US reimposing sanctions lifted by Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. While Iran still complies with the accord, President Donald Trump withdrew America from the deal due to Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support for groups like Hezbollah. While rare, Iran has been targeted in recent years by terror attacks.