Iranian consulate official shot dead in Peshawar - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Unidentified gunmen shot dead an official of the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar on Thursday. According to sources, Abul Hasan Jaffri, director Public Relations at the Iranian Consulate, was attacked near his home early morning. Jaffri was seriously wounded in the attack and was admitted to the military hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries later, The Dawn reports. Police has launched a massive search and combing operation in the city in pursuit of the attackers. Relationship between Pakistan and Iran has soured in the recent past with the later blaming Islamabad for fanning insurgency inside the country. While Tehran has accused Pakistan based terror units for masterminding the deadly suicide blast in Sistan, in which 42 security personnel were killed, Islamabad had refuted all such claims. Iran has been blaming Pakistan for the attack on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRG), saying there is specific information that the perpetrators were hiding inside Pakistan and has asked Islamabad to 'clarify' its stance over reports regarding its links banned terror group, Jondollah. Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had also said that the Sunni rebel group, which carried out a deadly bombing, was based in Pakistan. "This terrorist grouplet has links with intelligence services which are based in the region, including in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Mottaki said. It is worth mentioning here that a hardcore Islamic terror group, Jondollah, had taken the responsibility for the Sistan blast.