TEHRAN (FNA)- Tajik Interior Minister Ramazan Rahimzoda rejected media reports that the country’s security forces have arrested the ringleader of US-based anti-Iran terrorist group Tondar (Thunder), Jamshid Sharmahd.
“The ringleader of Tondar terrorist grouplet has not been detained in Tajikistan,” Rahimzoda told reporters in a press conference in Dushanbe on Monday.
He added that media speculations that Sharmahd has been arrested in Tajikistan and extradited to Iran are not correct.
His remarks came after the Iranian Intelligence Ministry strongly dismissed any speculations spread by some media outlets on the place its forces have captured Sharmahd.
The Ministry, issuing a statement on Sunday, ruled out any media hype on capturing the head of the terrorist grouplet “Tondar” in the Central Asian country of Tajikistan.
It emphasized that any official information on the issue will be published through the Ministry’s Public Relations Department.
Iran announced on Saturday that it has captured Sharmahd.
Sharmahd, who guided the armed and sabotage acts against Iran from the US, was arrested in complicated operations by the Iranian security forces and is now in the hands of the country’s intelligence ministry, a statement by the ministry said.
Tondar, or the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, also known as Soldiers of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, is an armed terrorist royalist group seeking to overthrow the ruling government and restore the monarchy in Iran.
Tondar claimed responsibility for the 2008 Shiraz explosion at the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada in which 14 people, including children, were killed and 215 others were injured.
Mohammad-Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, accused of being members of the terrorist group, were arrested and tried for the bombing. In January 2010, they were executed for waging war against God and attempting to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Tondar had also plotted for several other terrorist acts in Iran in recent years, including blowing up Sivand dam in Shiraz, detonating cyanide bombs at Tehran book exhibition and explosion of bombs during general ceremonies at late Imam Khomeini’s shrine. All these terrorist plots were foiled by the Iranian security forces.
