Iran shuts border point with Pakistan following mosque attack

Quetta (Pakistan), June 1 (ANI): In the wake of recent attack on a mosque that killed 25 people in the border city of Zahedan, Iran has decided to close the zero point along the Pak-Iran border.

As a result, bilateral trade and movement of the people have also been suspended.

On Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistan's Ambassador to Iran Muhammad Bux Abbasi and served a demarche on him for the bloody mosque bombing.

Iran "strongly voiced its protest and deep concern about the illegal activities of the terrorist group along the joint borders of Iran and Pakistan," a statement issued by the foreign ministry said.

Responding to a question pertaining to the summoning of Abbasi, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told The News: "Iran is our brotherly country with which we have excellent relations anchored in common faith and interests. The two countries are together in the fight against terrorism and there will be no compromise in this regard under any circumstances."

Iranian media said rebels had reportedly claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Iran executed three men convicted of involvement in the bomb attack, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday,

The bombing in a crowded Shi'ite mosque in the south-eastern city of Zahedan on Thursday evening wounded over 120 people.

A Sunni opposition group named Jundollah (God's Soldiers), which Iran says is part of the Islamist al Qaeda network and backed by the United States, said it was behind the bombing, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Friday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the bombing, saying "no one can doubt that the hands of ... some interfering powers and their spying services are bloodied by the blood of the innocent."

He called on Iranians "to pay attention to the conspiracies of the enemies". (ANI)