Taliban / Sipah-e-Sahaba kill Iran consulate official in Peshawar
The jihadi and sectarian alliance between Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban (who usually operate under various banners such as Jundollah, Lashkar-e-Jhangavi etc).
Motives:
To damage the inter-sectarian harmony in Pakistan
To terrorize the Shia Muslim minority in Pakistan
To terrorize Pakistani journalists and media persons
Director PR Iranian Consulate shot dead
PESHAWAR, Nov 12 (APP): Director Public Relations Iranian Consulate, Peshawar Abul Hassan Jaafri was shot dead by unknown assailants in Gulberg Colony, Peshawar cantonment Thursday morning. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. It merits a mention here that late Jaafri had also served as reporter in Daily Frontier Post, The Statesman in early 90s and contributed scores of articles and features on various issues.
Pakistani Iranian consulate worker shot in Peshawar
12 Nov 2009 06:54:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Faris Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 12 (Reuters) – A gunman shot dead a Pakistani working at Iran’s consulate in the city of Peshawar on Thursday, police said, in an attack likely to compound strains in relations between the Muslim neighbours.
Police declined to speculate on a motive for the killing of consulate public relations officer Abul Hassan Jaffry, which came almost exactly a year after an Iranian diplomat was abducted in the same city. The diplomat is still missing.
“As he came out of the narrow street where his house is, an attacker on foot was waiting and opened fire and then ran away,” Peshawar’s police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told Reuters.
Hassan died on his way to the hospital.
“No one saw the attacker. We’ve just got shell casings from a pistol from the spot,” he said.
Ties between mostly Sunni Muslim Pakistan and majority Shi’ite Muslim Iran were strained last month by a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran which killed 42 people.
A Sunni Muslim rebel group, Jundollah (God’s Soldiers), claimed responsibility for the attack in which 15 Iranian Revolutionary Guards, including six senior commanders, were killed along with 27 other people.
Sunni Muslim militants like the Taliban and al-Qaida believe Shiites are infidels and often target the sect
Iran says the militants operate from the Pakistani side of the border and has demanded Pakistan hand over their leader, Abdolmalik Rigi.
Pakistan has condemned the bombing and vowed to help Iran track down those responsible, but says Rigi is in Afghanistan.
Iran’s consul general in Peshawar, Abbas Ali Abdolahi, said Jaffry’s killing was a plot by the common enemies of Iran and Pakistan.
“It aims to strain the relationship of the two countries,” Abdolahi was quoted as saying by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB on its website.
Abdolahi said Jaffry was shot by two motorcycle riders.
On Nov. 13 last year, gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in Peshawar after killing one of his Pakistani guards.
Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, which borders Taliban strongholds in lawless lands along the Afghan border.
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AFP – PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen shot dead a Pakistani spokesman for the Iranian consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday as he was on his way to work, police said.
Attackers targeted Abu Al-Hasan Jaffry, director of public relations and protocol at the consulate in Peshawar, as he left for the office in his car, senior police official Nisar Marwat told AFP.
He died on the way to hospital, Marwat said. The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.
This is not the first time that an official at Iran’s consulate in Peshawar comes under attack. Last year, Iran’s commercial attache, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh-Niyaki, was kidnapped on his way to the consulate.
Jaffry was shot on a main road soon after leaving his home in the Gulberg neighbourhood of Peshawar, a witness said.
“Suddenly the firing started and when I reached the main road, I saw Jaffry bleeding with wounds and the attackers, probably more than two, had fled,” a man, who declined to give his name, told AFP.
“Jaffry had been hit in the head and chest and his left arm was badly injured,” he added.
A post-mortem examination was in progress at Peshawar’s Combined Military Hospital, a police official said. A government official in Peshawar confirmed the killing.
Relations between Iran and Pakistan are close, but tensions rose last month when Tehran blamed Pakistan-based militants for a suicide attack that killed 42 people, including 15 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.
Islamabad has strongly denied that the militant group Jundallah launched the October 18 attack from its territory.
Shiites, who are a majority in Iran, account for about 20 percent of Pakistan’s mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in flashes of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the 1980s.
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The founder and godfather of sectarianism and jihadism in Pakistan was the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq.
Iran frees diplomat kidnapped in Pakistan
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:49:07 GMT
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Iranian agents have released a diplomat from the Islamic Republic who was kidnapped in Pakistan by gunmen in 2008, the Iranian intelligence minister said.
Heidar Moslehi said Tuesday that Heshmatollah Attarzadeh-Niyaki, Iran’s commercial attache in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, was freed through a series of complicated intelligence operations.
Moslehi said that after the diplomat was abducted by an armed group backed by the US and Mossad, the Iranian government called on Pakistan to help Iran release the diplomat.
He said that the armed group made certain demands in exchange for the release but the Iranian forces refused to respond to them.
After the Pakistani government failed to assist Tehran, Moslehi said, the Iranian intelligence ministry took the initiative and managed to release Attarzadeh after a series of complicated measures.
Moslehi added that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the main target of US and Israeli intelligence services, warning regional countries against cooperating with the CIA and Mossad.
“The US, Mossad and European intelligence services, which are present in the region under false pretexts, are only creating instability in the region,” Moslehi said.
The official went on to add that even “those institutions and symbols in the world that are present in the region and Islamic countries under the title of defending human rights have, in fact, created insecurities in the region.”
The minister also said that the release of the Iranian diplomat after the arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the Jundallah terrorist group, further proved that Iran’s intelligence service outperformed those of the US and Israel in the region.
Moslehi said that further details on the release of the diplomat and Rigi’s confessions would be provided in the near future.
Attarzadeh-Niyaki was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in an ambush on November 13, 2008, while on his way to the Iranian consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. His driver was killed in the attack.
SF/AR/DT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121994§ionid=351020101
Iranian diplomat
Dawn Editorial
Thursday, 01 Apr, 2010
In this Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 file photo, a police officer looks at a shattered windshield of the car of Iranian diplomat, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, after he was kidnapped in Peshawar. — AP
WORLD
Iranian agents recover kidnapped diplomat
Iranian agents recover kidnapped diplomat
The release of Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, an Iranian diplomat working as commercial attaché in Iran’s consulate in Peshawar, is shrouded in mystery, but the early details of the diplomat’s ordeal suggest that Pakistan has been embarrassed by the incident. After Mr Attarzadeh was kidnapped in the Hayatabad neigbourhood of Peshawar in November 2008, he was taken to Orakzai Agency by his initial captors, believed to be members of the TTP. From there he is believed to have been moved to North Waziristan, and at some point handed over to the Afghan Taliban. The latter captors demanded a ransom and the release of some prisoners, perhaps Jundallah members (the group active in Sistan-Balochistan). Initially the negotiations were believed to have been conducted by Pakistan, but after several months of talks that led nowhere, the Iranians are believed to have intervened directly. Iranian officials have thus far remained tight-lipped about their role in Mr Attarzadeh’s release other than claiming that it was an ‘Iranian operation’ (though it is likely a ransom was paid). It is not known for certain where the diplomat was released, with some even suggesting Sistan-Balochistan as the venue.
Whatever the details, the incident has embarrassed Pakistan. The Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, Mashallah Shakeri, has bluntly stated that Mr Attarzadeh “was to be recovered by Pakistan” and that it “was conveyed to Pakistan that his safe recovery is the responsibility of Pakistan”. Iran is believed to be especially unhappy that authorities here allegedly could not prevent the removal of Mr Attarzadeh from Pakistani territory. The latest diplomatic flap comes only weeks since the leader of Jundallah, Abdolmalek Rigi, was finally arrested with Pakistani cooperation after Iran put a great deal of pressure on Islamabad. More generally, the safety of diplomats in Pakistan is increasingly a cause for concern. The Afghan ambassador-designate to Pakistan was kidnapped in September 2008 and still has not been recovered. In March, a plot to kidnap the Jordanian ambassador to Pakistan was revealed and two militants arrested. Tellingly, in all cases the road leads to North Waziristan.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/iranian-diplomat-140