**Iran’s president has accused Pakistani agents of involvement in a suicide bombing in south-east Iran targeting a group of elite Revolutionary Guards.**President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Pakistan to apprehend the attackers, who Iranian officials suggested had arrived from Pakistan.
At least 35 people died in the attack, in south-eastern Sistan-Baluchistan.
A Pakistani spokesman condemned the attack, which has been blamed on the Sunni resistance group, Jundullah.
The foreign office spokesman, Abdul Basit, also dismissed Iranian claims that Jundullah’s leader was in Pakistan.
‘Crushing’ response
According to state media, one or more suicide bombers targeted the group of Revolutionary Guards leaders who had arranged to meet with tribal leaders in the Pishin district close to the Pakistani border.
ANALYSIS
Jon Leyne, BBC Tehran correspondent
Jundallah, or Army of God, has been involved in a long-running insurgency in Sistan-Baluchistan.
Some experts believe they may have ties with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That is disputed, and another possibility is that Jundallah maintains more informal links with ethnic Baluchis in the neighbouring countries.
Jundallah is also believed to have ties with drugs smugglers, who race across the border in heavily armed convoys, taking drugs on the lucrative smuggling route from Afghanistan through to Western Europe.
Diplomats on official visits to see progress in Iran’s war on the drugs trade are always heavily guarded.
In May Iran hanged several members for a major attack on a mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan.
The brother of the group’s leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, was due to be executed, but remains in prison for further questioning.
Reports said a suicide bomber detonated a belt packed with explosives as the Guards as the meeting was about to start.
The deputy commander of the Guards’ ground force, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, and the Guards’ chief provincial commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, were among at least six officers reported to have been killed.
Dozens of people were injured.
A top Guards officer has also vowed to deliver a “crushing” response to those behind the attack, according to Agence France Presse.
Mr Ahmadinejad pointed towards Pakistan.
“We were informed that some security agents in Pakistan are co-operating with the main elements of this terrorist incident,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
“We regard it as our right to demand these criminals from them,” he said, without giving elaborating.
“We ask the Pakistani government not to delay any longer in the apprehension of the main elements in this terrorist attack.”
Iranian authorities summoned a senior Iranian diplomat in Tehran, claiming that the assailants had arrived in Iran from Pakistan, Iranian state media reported.
The foreign ministry also “protested against the use of Pakistani territory by the terrorists and rebels against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Isna news agency reported.
Earlier, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said “US action” contributed to the attack - an accusation dismissed by the US.
Banditry and kidnapping
Sistan-Baluchistan is mainly made up of the Baluchi ethnic group, who belong to the Sunni Muslim minority of Shia-ruled Iran.
SISTAN-BALUCHISTAN ATTACKS
- May 2009 A bomb explodes at a mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan, killing 19 and injuring 60.
- February 2007 Suspected militants killed 11, including Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in a bomb attack in the provincial capital Zahedan.
- ** March 2006** Gunmen posing as police kill 22 people, many government employees, after closing the Zabol-Zahedan road.
Jundallah has previously been accused by Iran of terrorist activities in the province.
The province borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has long been affected by smuggling, drug trafficking, banditry and kidnapping.
Jundallah, also known as the Popular Resistance Movement of Iran, says it is fighting against the political and religious oppression of the country’s Sunni minority.
Local media cited officials as saying Jundallah had accepted responsibility for Sunday’s bombing, though there was no direct claim from the group.