Police chief Brigadier General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moqaddam has criticized neighboring Pakistan for not doing enough to prevent terrorist groups from using its soil as an operation base against Iran.
Ahmadi Moqaddam said Pakistan is acting "irresponsibly" toward terror acts on zero border points and that is "unjustified".
"Islamabad must act responsibly; it is impossible to accept that terrorists establish bases in the neighboring country (Pakistan) and every time we call upon them to take action against those groups, (Pakistani officials) deny their existence or say they are powerless to fight them," IRNA quoted him as saying on Friday.
"If they can't (fight those groups); rather than providing them a safe haven, just authorize us to confront them within Pakistani territory," Ahmadi Moqaddam pointed out.
On Wednesday night, gunmen ambushed police forces who had responded to a distress call outside the city of Saravan in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. At least three police personnel were killed in that attack. In the following morning, another attack was carried out on a police station in the city killing one policeman and wounding another one.
Local security officials say they have arrested a number of terrorists involved in those attacks.
Sistan and Baluchestan Province has seen a spate of terrorist attacks in recent years with gunmen crossing the porous border with Pakistan.
In February, the so-called Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group kidnapped five Iranian border guards and took them to Pakistani territory. Four of them were later released while one is still unaccounted for.
Last year, Tehran and Islamabad signed a security agreement under which both countries are required to cooperate in preventing and combating organized crime, fighting terrorism, and countering the activities that pose a threat to national security of either country. Iran has repeatedly called on Pakistan to comply with the terms of the agreement.
