Militants killed four Iranian policemen and kidnapped at least one other in a late-night ambush in a sensitive border province before fleeing towards Pakistan, officials said on Wednesday but Pakistan denied any such incident.
The clash in the province of Sistan-Balochistan follows an upsurge of violence in the area which the authorities blame on plots by archfoe the United States and Pakistan's inability to control its border.
A border official in Pakistan said he had no knowledge of any such incident and dismissed Iranian complaints that its frontier security was lax. "We intercept any illegal movement and the two sides have signed several agreements for strict border control and counter-narcotics cooperation," said Captain Shahid, a spokesman for the Pakistan frontier security force in Quetta.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said that four police were killed, one abducted and another wounded in the clash on Tuesday.
Local police chief Esmael Ahmadi-Mogadam said earlier that four were taken hostage and two killed. "The rebels who were in two cars fled towards Pakistan," Ahmadi Mogadam told the Irna agency.
He complained about the "lack of cooperation from Pakistan to fight against these rebels" adding that "this position is unacceptable". Sistan-Balochistan, home to a population of minority Baloch Sunni Muslims, borders Pakistan to the south and Afghanistan to the north.
Zahedan governor Hassan Ali Nouri accused the United States of seeking to stir unrest in provinces where there is "ethnic and religious plurality". Safavi added: "The United States and the Zionists seek to incite insecurity in Iran by allocating millions of dollars, equipping and financing satellite televisions and buying arms for these groups."
In a separate clash in Sistan-Balochistan on Tuesday, Iranian security forces clashed with militants who crossed over from Pakistan and pushed them back, Mehr reported.