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Iran’s interior minister to arrive in Islamabad today

* Mostafa Najjar to discuss ways of cracking down on Jundullah members

TEHRAN: Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar will arrive in Pakistan today (Friday) to discuss ways of cracking down on a Sunni rebel group behind a deadly attack on the elite Revolutionary Guards.

The state television reported on Thursday that Najjar would head a large security delegation to Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterpart and other top officials on means of fighting Jundullah.

“Mostafa Mohammad Najjar will meet Pakistani officials... about the recent terrorist attack and ways of fighting against the terrorist group,” Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Mehdi Azar Makan said. Iran on Tuesday turned up the heat on Pakistan saying that Jundullah, (soldiers of God) which claimed responsibility for the October 18 suicide bombing, is based on its territory. Islamabad denied the allegations.

Top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards were among 42 people killed in the attack – the deadliest assault in recent years on Iran’s prestigious military force, which was set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tehran says that Jundullah chief Abdolmalek Reigi is based in Pakistan and has asked Islamabad to hand him over.

However, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit has denied that Reigi is in the country and said the attack was aimed at undermining ties between Islamabad and Tehran. “We don’t know the whereabouts of Reigi,” Basit said. “As Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, Rigi is not in Pakistan.”

A Jundullah statement on the Internet said the aim of Sunday’s operation was to avenge “the wounds of the Baloch people which have been bleeding for years without end”.

Hundreds of people have died since Baloch rebels rose up in 2004 against Islamabad, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s wealth of natural resources. afp

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