Pakistan 'directly responsible' for arresting rebels: Iran

I / Tehran October 21, 2009, 18:44 IST

Iran's chief of police today said that Pakistan was "directly responsible" for arresting anti-Tehran militants who launched a lethal suicide attack against the elite Revolutionary Guards.

Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam also said that talks between Tehran and Islamabad are under way to arrest the "main elements of the terrorist act."

"Some of the security apparatus of Pakistan are somehow involved in this terrorist act ... And the Pakistani government has direct responsibility in this regard and it must be prepared to arrest them," he was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

"The elements of the terrorist act entered our land from Pakistan and we are liaising with them to arrest the main elements."

The suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting on Sunday of the Guards and local tribesmen in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, killing more than 40 people, including 15 members of the Guards.

Tehran has also accused Britain and the United States of involvement in the attack, which has been claimed by Sunni rebel group Jundallah (Soldiers of God).

The group has been waging an insurgency against the Shiite rule from Tehran for nearly a decade.