Pakistan in Media

TEHRAN: An Iranian member of parliament on Monday raised the prospect of a possible cross-border military operation into Pakistan against the terrorist group blamed for a deadly attack on the elite Revolutionary Guards. Iran has in the past alleged that members of the Jundallah group, which state media said claimed Sunday’s suicide bombing in Iran, have been operating from Pakistan. “There is unanimity about the Revolutionary Guards and the security forces engaging in operations in any place they would deem necessary,” ISNA news agency quoted MP Payman Forouzesh as saying, appearing to refer to agreement on the issue among lawmakers. reuters

The News, Pakistan, Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Even as Pakistan continues to face accusations from India of having harboured on its soil terrorists who played a part in the attacks in Mumbai, similar accusations have come in from another neighbour. Iran claims that there was involvement of agents based in Pakistan with elements inside Iran in the suicide bombing on Sunday in the town of Pisheen, near the Pak-Iran border, which killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran and 42 other people. The use of a suicide 'belt' laden with explosives reminds many of attacks in Pakistan. But this is of course not enough to pin any theory on. The tactics of terrorism are learnt quickly and any group can mimic strategies seen elsewhere.

Our envoy in Tehran, summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry, has acted correctly in extending assurances that all efforts will be made to secure borders and track down anyone who may be involved. But Islamabad needs also to keep in mind that the new charges from Iran will add to the perceptions that we are a nation unable to control the militancy that has sprung up in our midst. The continued turmoil in Balochistan of course adds to the problem. This is an issue we need to bring under check. Terrorism needs to be thwarted. Otherwise we will continue to face embarrassing accusations and a consequent increase in tensions in the region.

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday urged his Pakistani counterpart to confront a Sunni rebel group which Tehran says is behind the bombing on the Revolutionary Guards that killed dozens.

“Iran and Pakistan have a brotherly relationship but the presence of terrorist elements in Pakistan is not justifiable,” Ahmadinejad told Asif Ali Zardari during a telephone call received from the Pakistan leader, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said.

“The Pakistani government should help to quickly arrest these criminals so they can be punished,” the Iranian president said, adding: “The criminal terrorists must be seriously confronted by setting up a bilateral timetable.”

Daily Times, Pakistan, Monday, June 22, 2009
The view in Pakistan is that Iran’s post-election unrest should not be overblown as some kind of terminal crisis, and if there is a problem it is a passing contradiction within the clerical hierarchy. Discussions on TV channels have decried the tendency in the Western media to look at the protests in the streets of some cities as the harbinger of a new order in the country that will radically change the map of Middle Eastern politics in favour of the United States. Mercifully, the White House has reined in adverse comment to allow the events in Iran to unfold to their logical conclusion.
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The News International, Pakistan
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
There is growing speculation that the unthinkable could happen in Iran. In the aftermath of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in a poll which many in Iran think was rigged, the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself seems to be facing more and more heat – not least after the deaths of several people during a rally on June 15 were reported by the Iranian media on June 16. There are those who believe he may even be ousted – in a series of events as startling as those of 1979 when the Shah was toppled in the revolution that converted Iran into an Islamic state – and they point to a message by the sidelined, one-time successor of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, to the youth of the country to "pursue peaceful protest".
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The News International, Pakistan
Saturday, June 06, 2009

ANKARA: The gas pipeline project between neighboring Pakistan and Iran has been formally signed here late on Friday, Geo news reported.

The agreement was signed between Iranian National Oil Company (INOC) and Pakistani Interstate Gas Company (PIGC).

The Managing Director (MD) of PIGC Hassan Nawab told Geo news the agreement is governed through third country law so it was bound to be signed in a third country and has been signed here in Turkey.

He said the work on the project has commenced from today (Friday) and will be completed by 2013 whereby Pakistan will receive 750 cubic million gas on daily basis which will be enough for generation of 4000 megawatt electricity.

“The gas pipeline will begin from Gawadar near Iranian border having 800 kilometer length”, he maintained adding, “The determination of gas price will be linked with contemporary oil prices at international market but will be less than 25 per cent as compared to crude oil prices”.

The estimated cost of the project will be US $1.2 billion, he added.

Source

Dawn, Pakistan

Mon, 01 Jun, 2009

TEHRAN: Iran summoned Pakistan’s ambassador over the deadly bombing of a mosque in the southeast after Sunni rebels reportedly claimed responsibility, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Mohammad Bakhsh Abbasi was summoned after Iran’s state television quoted the pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya as saying that the Jandullah (Soldiers of God) group said it was behind Thursday’s mosque attack which killed 25 people.

According to state television, the chief of the Iranian armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, said on Saturday that Iran ‘has located the base of the group’s head and informed Pakistan’s government of his arrest.’

The Iranian authorities said they immediately arrested three men involved in the bombing. The trio were executed on Saturday morning near the mosque in Zahedan city, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.

In recent years, the restive province has been the scene of a deadly insurgency by Jundallah, which is strongly opposed to the government of predominantly Shiite Iran.

The province has a substantial Sunni minority and lies on a major narcotics-smuggling route from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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