Pakistan Frees 11 Iran Security Officers
Police say Pakistan has released 11 Iranian security officers held near the countries' border amid tensions.
The Iranians were accused of illegally crossing the border.
Pakistani authorities say they were arrested Monday after shooting out the tires of a car carrying smugglers.
Their arrest followed a recent deadly suicide attack in Iran that Tehran alleges has links to Pakistani intelligence officials.
The 11 officers were taken into custody Monday in Mashkel, close to the countries' border in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, police officer Dadur Raman said. He said officers were interrogating the men and had seized two vehicles.
Authorities first said the 11 were members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, but later identified them only as security officers.
Ties between Pakistan and Iran have been strained since the Oct. 18 suicide attack killed 15 members of the powerful Revolutionary Guard, including five senior commanders, and at least 27 others in the town of Pishin on the Iranian side of the border.
Iranian officials blamed the Sunni rebel group known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, in the attack. Iran's president and the Guard chief have since publicly accused Pakistan's intelligence service of supporting Jundallah.
Pakistan's president met with Iran's interior minister in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the attack.
President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to cooperate in capturing any attackers and said those behind the blasts "were the enemies of both countries."
Other Pakistani officials have denied Iranian charges that the leader of Jundallah, Abdulmalik Rigi, is in Pakistan, saying he is in Afghanistan.
A week ago, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly accused "certain officials in Pakistan" cooperating with the main terrorists involved in last Sunday's brazen attack in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province. That accusation added to Pakistan's list of security-related woes, senior western diplomats told CBS News' Farhan Bokhari last week.
The victims of the attack, according to Iran's state-run Fars news agency, included Gen. Nur-Ali Shushtari, the deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards ground forces, Gen. Mohammad-Zadeh, the Guards commander in Sistan-Baluchistan and at least three other commanders of Revolutionary Guards units.
Last month, an Iranian official speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity accused Pakistan's security officials of helping Jundullah gain arms and training in Pakistan's Baluchistan community.
"We have told our Pakistani brothers a number of times that this kind of behavior will not help either of our two countries. You (Pakistan) must act before there is disaster," he said.
Jundullah has been accused by Iranian officials of operating out of Pakistan's Baluchistan region. In the past, Iranian officials have blamed Jundullah for several terrorist attacks on Iranian soil.
Iran is the only Muslim country with a Shia majority - making up about 90 percent of its population.
The two branches of Islam - Sunni and Shia - trace their differences to events following the death of the prophet Muhammad, when a group of Muslims joined ranks with Imam Ali-the prophet's son-in-law. This group came to be known as Shiyan-e-Ali or "friends of Ali," later shortened to just "Shia" Muslims, in contrast to the majority Sunni group.
The two provinces, Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan with a Sunni majority and Pakistan's Baluchistan with a mix of Sunni and Shia Muslims, have overseen close daily ties between people from both sides; Pakistani consumers routinely cross to the Iranian side to buy everyday commodities such as gas. Iran and Pakistan have discussed plans for years to set up an ambitious gas pipeline project from Iran to Pakistan's Baluchistan province, as a key channel for the export of Iranian gas.