Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik speaking with Iranian counterpart Mostafa Mohammad Najjar during a meeting in Islamabad on October 23, 2009. – AFP
QUETTA: With its focus trained on the Afghan and Indian borders, Islambad can ill afford to fall out with Tehran over Sunni rebels who last week carried out their deadliest attack on Iran, say analysts.
Iran says those behind the October 18 killing of 42 people, including 15 of its elite Revolutionary Guards, sneaked across the Pakistan border.
Islamabad roundly condemned the bombing in southeastern Pisheen, which President Asif Ali Zardari called a 'gruesome and barbaric' attack by 'a cowardly enemy' in a call to his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In talks Friday in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rehman Malik assured his Iranian opposite number Mostafa Mohammad Najjar 'Pakistan would never allow its territory for any terrorist activity'.
While strongly denying the attack claimed by Jundallah (Soldiers of God) was launched from Pakistan, officials appear to be turning a blind eye to a subsequent Iranian sweep for suspects.
A top provincial government official confirmed Pakistan was aware Iranian security forces had been trying to track down suspects along the porous border.
'We do have knowledge about the on-going Iranian operation in the Jalik area along the border to arrest their suspects,' Baluchistan home secretary Mohammad Akbar Durrani told AFP.
Durrani said Pakistan had a record of cooperation with Iran and 'very cordial and brotherly relations'.
Jundallah has been waging an insurgency against Tehran for five years but the attack on the Revolutionary Guards was by far the most spectacular from a group which previously confined its assaults to isolated security outposts.
Top Iranian officials, including Ahmadinejad, have alleged that Pakistan's powerful and shadowy intelligence apparatus, along with those of Britain and the United States, had a role in Sunday's bombing.
Iranian officials believe Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi is in Pakistan and want him handed over, although Pakistan denies he is in the country.
There is no hard evidence of coordination between Pakistan intelligence and Jundallah and in recent years Pakistan has arrested Jundallah activists.
Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, which borders Iran, is rife with militancy, Sunni-Shia sectarian violence and Pakistani Baluch insurgents fighting for Baluch independence from Pakistan and Iran.
Analysts say the last thing in Pakistan needs Iran stirring up the mix further with the army waging a major offensive against the Taliban along the Afghan border and consumed by the perceived threat from India.
'The Pisheen suicide bombing was obviously a blow for the Iranian security services,' said Munsoor Akbar Kundi, who writes for the Dawn newspaper.
'If Iran responds by supporting Baluchi insurgents in Pakistan in the belief that Pakistani intelligence agencies gave backing to the Jundallah suicide bomber, it would bring instability in Pakistan.
'We already have a troubled relationship with India and Afghanistan and so can't afford to fall out with Iran which until now has been a reliable friend.'
Faiza Mir, lecturer in international relations in Quetta's Baluchistan University, said the civilian government would be keen to dampen tensions.
'The Pakistan government will take both diplomatic and substantive measures to reassure the Iranians that we are not behind Jundallah,' she told AFP.
In an interview last year with AFP, the Iranian-born Rigi claimed to have more than 600 armed followers.
He insists he is not fighting for an independent Baluch homeland and has no problem with authorities in Sunni-majority Pakistan, but says Baluchs and Sunnis have been treated as second class citizens in predominantly Shia Iran.
'We are deprived of our own mosque while there is no proper infrastructure or schooling for the Baluchi people there,' he said.
Rigi said he had offered to renounce armed struggle if Iran guaranteed the rights of Sunni and Baluch minorities, but a delegation of tribal elders who travelled to Iran was given short shrift.
Born into a middle-class family, Rigi was born in the Iranian province of Baluchistan-Seestan but fled five years ago after beginning his insurgency.
A fluent speaker of Persian and Arabic, Rigi has a reputation as an intellectual and claims to have more than 5,000 books in his personal library.
Iran says those behind the October 18 killing of 42 people, including 15 of its elite Revolutionary Guards, sneaked across the Pakistan border.
Islamabad roundly condemned the bombing in southeastern Pisheen, which President Asif Ali Zardari called a 'gruesome and barbaric' attack by 'a cowardly enemy' in a call to his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In talks Friday in Islamabad, Interior Minister Rehman Malik assured his Iranian opposite number Mostafa Mohammad Najjar 'Pakistan would never allow its territory for any terrorist activity'.
While strongly denying the attack claimed by Jundallah (Soldiers of God) was launched from Pakistan, officials appear to be turning a blind eye to a subsequent Iranian sweep for suspects.
A top provincial government official confirmed Pakistan was aware Iranian security forces had been trying to track down suspects along the porous border.
'We do have knowledge about the on-going Iranian operation in the Jalik area along the border to arrest their suspects,' Baluchistan home secretary Mohammad Akbar Durrani told AFP.
Durrani said Pakistan had a record of cooperation with Iran and 'very cordial and brotherly relations'.
Jundallah has been waging an insurgency against Tehran for five years but the attack on the Revolutionary Guards was by far the most spectacular from a group which previously confined its assaults to isolated security outposts.
Top Iranian officials, including Ahmadinejad, have alleged that Pakistan's powerful and shadowy intelligence apparatus, along with those of Britain and the United States, had a role in Sunday's bombing.
Iranian officials believe Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi is in Pakistan and want him handed over, although Pakistan denies he is in the country.
There is no hard evidence of coordination between Pakistan intelligence and Jundallah and in recent years Pakistan has arrested Jundallah activists.
Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, which borders Iran, is rife with militancy, Sunni-Shia sectarian violence and Pakistani Baluch insurgents fighting for Baluch independence from Pakistan and Iran.
Analysts say the last thing in Pakistan needs Iran stirring up the mix further with the army waging a major offensive against the Taliban along the Afghan border and consumed by the perceived threat from India.
'The Pisheen suicide bombing was obviously a blow for the Iranian security services,' said Munsoor Akbar Kundi, who writes for the Dawn newspaper.
'If Iran responds by supporting Baluchi insurgents in Pakistan in the belief that Pakistani intelligence agencies gave backing to the Jundallah suicide bomber, it would bring instability in Pakistan.
'We already have a troubled relationship with India and Afghanistan and so can't afford to fall out with Iran which until now has been a reliable friend.'
Faiza Mir, lecturer in international relations in Quetta's Baluchistan University, said the civilian government would be keen to dampen tensions.
'The Pakistan government will take both diplomatic and substantive measures to reassure the Iranians that we are not behind Jundallah,' she told AFP.
In an interview last year with AFP, the Iranian-born Rigi claimed to have more than 600 armed followers.
He insists he is not fighting for an independent Baluch homeland and has no problem with authorities in Sunni-majority Pakistan, but says Baluchs and Sunnis have been treated as second class citizens in predominantly Shia Iran.
'We are deprived of our own mosque while there is no proper infrastructure or schooling for the Baluchi people there,' he said.
Rigi said he had offered to renounce armed struggle if Iran guaranteed the rights of Sunni and Baluch minorities, but a delegation of tribal elders who travelled to Iran was given short shrift.
Born into a middle-class family, Rigi was born in the Iranian province of Baluchistan-Seestan but fled five years ago after beginning his insurgency.
A fluent speaker of Persian and Arabic, Rigi has a reputation as an intellectual and claims to have more than 5,000 books in his personal library.
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