Scapegoating Pakistan
As if AfPak wasn’t bad enough, we can now add Iran to the acronym. Iran was quick to blame Pakistan, along with the US and UK, for Sunday’s suicide attack on the Revolutionary Guards Corps near the Balochistan border. The Iranians claimed that the three countries were aiding the terrorist group Jundallah, which has been fighting the Iranian government, mainly through kidnappings, for nearly a decade.
Iran, which has threatened to carry out cross-border anti-terrorist operations, has not provided any proof of their allegations. There are three reasons why their accusations should not be taken too seriously:
1. Pakistan has a history of cooperation with Iran on the Jundallah issue. In June 2008, Pakistani authorities extradited Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi, along with a dozen other members of the group to Iran. Iran is yet to explain why Pakistan would suddenly decide to start supporting a group it had previously acted against.
2. While there are no reports of an alliance amongst Jundallah and Pakistan’s homegrown Baloch separatist militants, it would be a natural partnership. For Pakistan to support Jundallah when it is involved in its own struggle against the Baloch defies logic.
3. As for the US-UK connection, it is fair to dismiss that too. The only proof, such as it is, of Western involvement is testimony given by Abdolhamid Rigi that the group was acting at the behest of the US. Needless to say, evidence procured by Iranian interrogators should be taken with a huge heaping of salt.
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here’s to four years of KU fun:)
Abdolhamid Rigi or anyone else in Iranian hands would confess to JFK asasination. LOL