Suicide attack: Iran summons Pak envoy

TEHRAN : Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday summoned the Pakistani ambassador after Tehran accused Islamabad of harbouring a jihadist group behind a deadly suicide attack on security forces.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran expects Pakistan’s government and army to seriously confront ... the terrorist groups active on its border with Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

An Iranian official at the ministry called on Pakistan to quickly take the necessary steps for the identification and arrest of the attack’s perpetrators.

The suicide bombing on Wednesday killed 27 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards travelling on a bus in the volatile southeastern province of Sis tan Baluchistan, which straddles the border with Pakistan.

The attack was claimed by the jihadist outfit Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice).

It was formed in 2012 as a successor to the Sunni extremist group Jundallah (Soldiers of God), which waged a deadly insurgency for a decade before it was severely weakened by the capture and execution of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010.

On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani said the attack was “planned and carried out from inside Pakistan,” which he said should answer for it.

His comments came a day after Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari on Saturday blamed Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency for sheltering the jihadists. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has linked the perpetrators of the attack to “the spying agencies of some regional and trans-regional countries”.