TEHRAN: A suicide bomber killed seven commanders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and up to 42 other people on Sunday in an attack that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charged had been plotted from Pakistan.

The foreign ministry called in Pakistan’s charge d’affaires over the bombing. Several tribal leaders in the Sistan-Baluchestan province also died in the bombing which left many others wounded.

The attacker set off his explosives belt as a meeting got under way in the morning in front of a gymnasium in the city of Pisheen near the Pakistan border, the state television said.

 ’The number of martyrs from the terrorist attack has reached 49... and that figure could still rise,’ the Mehr news agency reported.

Provincial chief coroner Abbas Amian told the Irna news agency that his office had received 42 bodies.
The chief prosecutor in Sistan-Baluchestan, Mohammad Marziah, said that Abdolmalek Rigi, head of the rebel group Jundallah, had ‘accepted the responsibility’ for the attack.

 Among the dead were Gen Nur-Ali Shushtari, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces; Gen Mohammad-Zadeh, commander of the force in the province; and the commanders for the town of Iranshahr and the Amir Al Momenin unit, the Fars news agency said.

Three other commanders from the adjacent province of Kerman were also killed.

Fars quoted President Ahmadinejad as saying: ‘We became aware that some of agents in Pakistan were cooperating with the main elements of today’s terrorist incident and we consider it to be our right to demand the rendition of these criminals.

‘We want the Pakistani government not to delay the arrest of the main elements of this terrorist act any longer.’

According to the Isna news agency, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned Pakistan’s envoy in Tehran, ‘protested against the use of Pakistani territory by the terrorists and rebels against the Islamic Republic of Iran and urged Pakistani authorities to act firmly to prevent the movement of those terrorists and rebels in their country’.

According to the Press TV, ‘the Pakistani official assured Tehran that his country would take all measures to secure its border with Iran’.

An injured man, Mohammad Ayoub Dehghani, said the bomber ‘must have walked through the people to where the commanders and tribal heads were sitting’.

‘The enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot tolerate the unity, so they hire mercenaries who are supported by the Zionists and arrogant powers to carry out these terrorist attacks,’ Irna quoted him as saying.

Gen Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces, threatened retribution for the bombing. ‘The Guards will give a very harsh and crushing response to this group, so the group will never be able to launch another act like this in the country.’

Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said the US was involved in the attack. ‘We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action. This is the sign of America’s animosity against our country,’ he said.

‘(US President Barack) Obama has said he will extend his hand towards Iran, but with this terrorist action he has burned his hand,’ he said.

 The US denied any involvement. “We condemn this act of terrorism and mourn the loss of innocent lives,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

‘Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false,’ he added.

Foreign Office, Zardari condemn terror attack

President Asif Ali Zardari and Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit have condemned Sunday’s suicide attack in Iran.

According to a TV channel, Basit said that Pakistan enjoyed brotherly relations with Iran ‘and we condemn the sad event’.

He refuted allegations about presence of Jundallah in Pakistan and said that both the countries had mutual interim and bilateral mechanism and they cooperated with each other on any critical issue.

The spokesman pointed to some elements who wanted to disrupt the good relations between the two countries which were linked in religious, cultural and trade bonds.

 Basit assured Iran of Pakistan’s full cooperation in this critical situation. The spokesman said Pakistan and Iran were cooperating in the war against terrorism.

He said the war against terrorists in South Waziristan reflected Pakistan’s commitment that it would not allow its soil to be used for terrorist activities in any country.

He said Pakistan was not involved in terrorist activities, but was 'struggling to eradicate the menace of

ZARDARI: In a statement, President Asif Ali Zardari described the incident as gruesome, barbaric and typically bearing the signatures of a cowardly enemy on the run.

He said Pakistan would continue to support Iran both bilaterally and at the regional level to curb militancy and exterminate militants. He expressed sympathy with the government and people of Iran and prayed for those who had lost their lives in the incident.—APP/Agencies