Iranian minister visits Pak to discuss crackdown on Jundullah

Mounting pressure on Pakistan to hand over a militant group's chief, Iran today sent its interior minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar here to discuss ways to crack down on the terror outfit blamed for a suicide attack that killed its elite Revolutionary Guards' top commanders.

Najjar, who is accompanied by a large security delegation, was accorded a guard of honour at the interior ministry before he held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik on means of fighting Jundullah.

Iran has for long claimed that members of Jundullah, a Baloch Sunni militant group, are active in Pakistan's Balochistan province and get support from some intelligence officials there.

Iran has asked Pakistan to hand over members of Jundullah operating from its territory, including its chief Abdolmalek Rigi, who it said was hiding in Pakistan. Tehran has claimed that the attack was planned on Pakistani soil, but Malik denied it and said Rigi is in Afghanistan.

Top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, including its deputy chief, were among 42 people killed in the suicide attack carried out by Jundullah in Sistan-Baluchistan province bordering Pakistan on October 18.

A statement issued by Jundullah said the aim of the attack was to avenge "the wounds of the Baloch people which have been bleeding for years without end". The Iranian minister will also meet other top officials.