BC-AS—Pakistan-Iran, 3rd Ld-Writethru,0504
Pakistan arrests 11 Iranians close to border
AP Photo ISL102
By Abdul Sattar
Associated Press
QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistan arrested 11 Iranians today after they shot at a vehicle carrying smugglers on the Pakistani side of the border, officials said.
The incident came amid tensions over a recent suicide attack that Tehran alleges was carried out by militants sheltering inside Pakistan and supported by its intelligence officials.
Pakistani officials initially identified the men as members of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, but later said most were regular border guards. One official said three senior officers among the detainees probably belonged to the elite unit.
Iran’s Press TV carried what it described as a statement from the guard condemning the arrests, but saying that the 11 were not its members. The report cited “informed” sources as saying the 11 were “border guards hunting fuel smugglers (who) accidentally entered Pakistan.”
In an attempt to boost security in the region, Iran in April put the Revolutionary Guard directly in control of Sistan-Baluchistan province. Its officers typically take the lead in any operations on Iran’s border.
The 11 officers were taken into custody in Mashkel district, around four miles from the countries’ border in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, said paramilitary official Mohammad Naseer Baluch.
He said they were arrested soon after they shot out the tires of a car driven by “two petty smugglers.”
Ties between Pakistan and Iran have been strained since an Oct. 18 suicide attack killed 15 members of the Revolutionary Guard, including five senior commanders, and at least 27 others in the town of Pishin on the Iranian side of the border.
Iranian officials blamed a Sunni rebel group known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, in the attack.
Iran’s president and the guard chief have since publicly accused Pakistan’s intelligence service of supporting Jundallah.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari met with Iran’s interior minister in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the attack. Zardari vowed to cooperate in capturing any attackers and said those behind the blasts “were the enemies of both countries.”
Other Pakistani officials today said the arrested Iranians were in two cars and had no travel documents.
“We need to probe that,” said Murtaza Baig, a spokesman for the paramilitary border force.
Pakistan has been accused of past and ongoing support of militant activities in two other neighboring countries, Afghanistan and India, greatly complicating relations with both of them. Tensions with another regional power would only add to the problems facing it as it battles al-Qaida and the Taliban within its borders.
Jundallah has waged a low-level insurgency in Iran’s southeast in recent years, claiming to fight on behalf of the Baluchi ethnic minority, which it says is persecuted by Iran’s government.
The 120,000-member guard is Iran’s strongest military force and is directly linked to the ruling clerics. It also controls Iran’s missile program and guards its nuclear facilities.
Iran has also accused the United States and Britain of having links with Jundallah, charges both nations deny.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
