No communication sent to Iran, says official: Trouble in Balochistan
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: Senior military and civilian officials on Sunday denied claims made in reports in a section of the British and US media that Islamabad had accused Iran of fuelling insurgency in the troubled province of Balochistan.
When asked if Pakistan had found any involvement of Iran, as claimed in the reports, or of any other third country in violence in Balochistan, DG Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said: "I have no such information."
And a senior government official told Dawn: "No formal communication has been sent to Tehran." However, the official said: "Thorough investigations are being conducted about the incidents and no third country has so far been identified."
When contacted, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan emphatically denied any cooperation between Pakistan and the US over Iran's nuclear programme as suggested in the reports. Mr Khan said the reports suggesting Pak-US cooperation over Iran's nuclear programme were 'false and baseless'.
DAWN'S WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT ADDS: Reports published simultaneously in The Washington Times and Sunday Telegraph, London said Pakistan had accused Iran of fuelling the growing insurgency in Balochistan.
The report quotes senior Pakistani officials as saying that Iran was encouraging 'intruders' from within its own Baloch community to cross the 550-mile border with the Pakistani province and give support to the rebels.
"All this violence is a part of a greater conspiracy," a senior Pakistani government official was quoted in the report as saying. "These militants would not be challenging the government so openly without the backup of a foreign hand."
The report points out that Pakistan's support would be essential for any US-led action against Iran, a country singled out last week by Vice-President Dick Cheney for possible US action. "You look around the world at potential trouble spots - Iran is right at the top of the list," Mr Cheney said.
The report says that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency had set up a unit in Quetta to monitor suspected Iranian activity in Balochistan. In addition to directly supporting the insurgency, Tehran's state-controlled radio has launched a propaganda campaign against Islamabad, the report claimed.
"Radio Tehran broadcasts between 90 and 100 minutes of programmes every day which carry propaganda against the Pakistan government," said a former Pakistani interior minister. He added that Iran was suspected of providing financial, logistical and moral backing for the insurgency.
