Pakistan denies Iranian claim

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A Sunni rebel leader accused of masterminding the recent suicide attack in Iran is not in Pakistan, the Pakistani interior minister said.

Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad Abdul Malik Reegi, head of the Jundallah group, is in Afghanistan, not Pakistan, and that his government had provided sufficient proof to the Iranian government, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The rebel group is accused in the deaths of 42 people, including several officers of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Sunday's suicide bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province neighboring Pakistan.

Malik said Pakistan had handed over 18 terrorists, including the brother of Reegi, to Iran, IRNA reported. The Pakistani minister was quoted as saying his government will not allow anyone to use its territory to attack a brotherly Islamic country like Iran.

CNN reported Iran has also accused the United States of having links to Jundallah, which a U.S. State Department spokesman dismissed as "completely false."

Iranian media reports have said Jundallah had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Separately, Iran's Fars news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guards' commander, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, as urging Iranian officials to attack the Jundallah group in Pakistan.

"No doubt Reegi is in Pakistan and the members of his gang are being trained by certain arrogant countries like the (United States) and Britain and a number of arrested members of the group have confessed to this fact," Pakpour told Fars.