国际英语新闻：Iran summons Pakistani ambassador over Zahedan mosque bombing

TEHRAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistani ambassador to Tehran on Saturday over the recent bloody mosque bombing in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    In the meeting with Muhammad Bux Abbasi, Iran "strongly voiced its protest at and deep concern about the illegal activities of the terrorist group along the joint borders of Iran and Pakistan," IRNA reported.

    It referred to Jundullah (God's Soldiers), an armed Sunni Iranian opposition group that is based in Pakistan and claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran.

    The Pakistani ambassador, for his part, promised to reflect Iran 's protest at the earliest opportunity to his country's top officials.

    According to pan-Arab television channel Al-Arabiya, Jundullah has said it was behind the bombing in Zahedan, capital of the province of Sistan-Baluchistan, on Thursday, which killed 25 people and wounded at least 125 others.

    Jundullah has been identified as a terrorist organization by both Iran and Pakistan and many believe it is linked to the al-Qaida terrorist group. It also allegedly receives support from the U.S. government.

    In the past few years, Iran has often been hit by bombings and armed attacks in its southeastern provinces bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, which the authorities usually blamed on Jundullah.

    Iran also blamed the United States, Britain and some other Western countries behind these attacks, accusing them of destabilizing the Islamic Republic, a charge denied by Washington and London.

    Clashes between Iranian security forces and drug smugglers were also frequent on the eastern border areas of Iran, which is located at the crossroad of international drug smuggling from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe.