Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
An Iranian interior ministry official has denied recent remarks made by Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani regarding plans to carry out terrorist attacks in three places in the country.
The news suggesting that several individuals have entered the country to activate bombs in three places in the country is not true, the deputy interior minister for security affairs, Hossein Zolfaqari said Dec. 21.
The official said that terrorists had plans to carry out terrorist attacks in country last year which were repelled.
Earlier on 20 December Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that a couple of days ago three people crossed Iranian borders planning to explode a holy Shia shrine in Mashhad City, a place in Qom City and the venue of Friday Prayer in Tehran.
Early December reports suggested that Iranian police tightened security measures in capital Tehran deploying armed special forces on streets and to metro stations in preparation for tackling any possible terrorist attack as fears over attacks had raised in the country.
Meanwhile Iranian police arrested 53 individuals allegedly linked to the IS terrorist group (ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) who reportedly backed the terrorist group through online posts. However, some of them were released after interrogation.