| Pakistan won’t allow its soil to be used against Iran’ |
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| Written by Harris Badar | |
| Friday, 20 March 2009 | |
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src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> The spokesman at the foreign office was asked to comment on remarks by the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, Mashaalah Shakeri, who on Thursday asked that Pakistan should not to allow Jundullah to use Pak soil. He also asked the authorities to take steps for speedy recovery of kidnapped Iranian attache. Shakeri’s remarks came at a time when US ambassador Anne Patterson was in Balochistan to help in the release of a UN official, and also at a time when the US media is speculating drone attacks inside Balochistan. “Pakistan’s policy is very clear as far as Jundullah is concerned. We will never allow the soil of Pakistan to be used to destabilise Iran. We know there is concern inside Iran and in this regard the visit of President Asif Zardari and Interior Adviser Rehman Malik to a great extent have allayed fears in Iran,” the spokesman added. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says that it is determined that the soil of Pakistan will not be allowed to be used by the Jundullah, in any manner, to destabilise the Iranian government. The spokesman at the foreign office was asked to comment on remarks by the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, Mashaalah Shakeri, who on Thursday asked that Pakistan should not to allow Jundullah to use Pak soil. He also asked the authorities to take steps for speedy recovery of kidnapped Iranian attache. Shakeri’s remarks came at a time when US ambassador Anne Patterson was in Balochistan to help in the release of a UN official, and also at a time when the US media is speculating drone attacks inside Balochistan. “Pakistan’s policy is very clear as far as Jundullah is concerned. We will never allow the soil of Pakistan to be used to destabilise Iran. We know there is concern inside Iran and in this regard the visit of President Asif Zardari and Interior Adviser Rehman Malik to a great extent have allayed fears in Iran,” the spokesman added. He said heads of the interior ministries of the two countries would be meeting every month to thrash out issues directly related on the Iran-Pakistan border and in this regard officials of the two ministries and those working with agencies at the Pak-Iran border would be meeting soon to prepare for the ministerial meetings. Jundullah, according to reports in the American media, during the Bush administration was being funded by Washington. American television’s ABC News, in the past had run reports saying Jundullah, also known as “Army of God”, “Allah’s Soldiers”, and “God’s Brigade” as well as the Popular Iranian Resistance Movement — is a Sunni “Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran. The group, which “has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials”, “has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, US and Pak intelligence said. These reports say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice-President Dick Cheney met with former president Pervez Musharraf in February. A senior US government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al-Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the US to deal with such groups in that context.” Someone who has for the past two years being pointing out in her writings in The News, about the US support to Jundullah, is Dr Shireen Mazari, a defence analyst. |
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