ISLAMABAD: Pakistani foreign office sources said on Thursday that Tehran’s envoy to Islamabad had been summoned over a deadly cross-border attack on security forces.
On Wednesday, four Pakistani soldiers we killed on patrol duty in Panjgur district, Balochistan province, the Pakistani military said, adding that “Iranian soil” had been used to launch the attack.
Sources at the foreign office confirmed that Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Ali Hosseini was summoned on Thursday to hear “Pakistan’s grave concern over the terrorist attack from inside the Iranian territory” and Pakistan’s expectation that the government of Iran “would swiftly bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice and to prevent recurrence of such incidents.”
Earlier in the day, foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters at a media briefing that Pakistan had called on Iran to hold accountable “responsible elements” behind the attack.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attack from across the Iran border,” Baloch said.
“Terrorists used the territory of Iran and we hope that Iran will act against the responsible elements.”
He added that Pakistan had never allowed its territory to be used against Iran and “Iran also should not allow its territory to be used for terrorism against Pakistan.”
In a press statement, the Iranian embassy in Islamabad condemned Wednesday’s attack.
“Terrorism is the common pain of Iran,” the statement said.
Iran and Pakistan have for years accused each other of not doing enough to stamp out militants allegedly sheltering across their lengthy, shared border, which has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and separatist and religious militants.
In 2019, both countries said they would form a joint quick reaction force to combat militant activity on their shared border, but little has been reported since on the force’s work.
Pakistan has seen a spike in militant attacks in recent weeks, with most linked to the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group, or TTP, that unilaterally ended a cease-fire with the Pakistani government last November.
The Pak Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank, said Pakistan was hit by 254 militant attacks in 2022 alone.