Iran official: dozens of outlawed groups operating across Pakistan border

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two days after gunmen killed eight border guards on the frontier with Pakistan, the chief of Iran’s border guards said that his forces had engaged in gun battles with more than 80 groups of smugglers and outlaws.

Qassem Rezaei told Iran’s Police News that his forces had faced more than 70 attacks “by 80 different groups of smugglers and outlaws who have fled Iran and set up base inside Pakistan, from where they carry out sabotage against Iran.”

Giving an account of the latest encounter, Rezaei said that on Monday “a terrorist group” had attacked an Iranian border patrol near Negur, killing eight border guards.

“Our border guards were patrolling the border on duty when a terrorist group 20 meters inside Pakistan -- and in position on a ridge -- clashed with our patrol and killed eight guards,” he said.

Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, where the incident happened, is predominantly populated by the Baloch, a largely Sunni ethnic group scattered mainly over Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

In Baluchestan province one of Iran’s largest Sunni groups complains of discrimination and religious suppression from Tehran. The outlawed Jaish al-Adalah (Army of Justice) has clashed with Iranian border guards and kidnapped soldiers.

Rezaei said that his forces are protecting both sides of the border, but complained that the Pakistani side “are indifferent to what is happening.”

“Pakistan is responsible for any border incidents that happen in this region and our country cannot accept that,” he warned.

He accused Pakistan of providing a safe haven – and a place to organize and train -- to gunmen who are originally Iranian and wanted by the law.  

“We ask the state of Pakistan to pay greater attention to controlling its borders,” he said.