WASHINGTON, April 25: Pakistan’s security services have quietly arrested a number of suspected militants in the past two months in a major bid to thwart planned attacks inside Iran, CBS News reported on Wednesday.
Quoting key Pakistani and Arab officials, the report said that the arrests appear to be the first tangible evidence of a Pakistani response to the February militant attack in Zahedan, Iran, which left 11 people dead — all members of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Iranian officials blamed the attacks on members of Jundullah, a shadowy militant group based in Pakistan, and believed to be seeking to intensify attacks inside Iran.
The Zahedan attack prompted widespread concerns among senior Pakistani officials of a slide in already-uneasy relations with the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the report said.
According to the report, Iranian officials have claimed privately
that Islamabad has not done enough to curb anti-Iran militants based on Pakistani soil.
The report said that 100 to 150 arrested so far also include an unspecified number of war-hardened veterans who have previously fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
A militant who was once associated with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi told CBS News that most of the recent arrests took place in Balochistan and the North West Frontier Provinces.“The arrests have taken place usually when people have been on the road. In some instances, they were quietly picked up when they stopped at a roadside cafe for a meal," said the militant, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.
A second source, who is also a member of a now-banned Pakistani Sunni group, claimed the arrests may have been prompted by information given to Pakistan by the Iranians.
“In many cases, there were people arrested who were widely believed to be anti-Iran for a long time. I believe the Iranians had much to do with identifying these people and making sure they were picked up," he said.
