The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday said Pakistan has decided to recall its ambassador from Iran after what it described as “unprovoked violation of its airspace” by Tehran.
“Pakistan reserves the right to respond to this illegal act and the responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” Pakistan FO spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said in a press briefing.
“We have conveyed this message to the government of Iran. We have also informed them that Pakistan has decided to recall its ambassador from Iran and that the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, who is currently touring Iran, may not return for the time being,” she said.
Baloch further said that Islamabad had decided to dismissed all high-level visits which were underway or were proposed between Pakistan and Iran in the coming days.
The development comes after the FO, in a statement released late Tuesday night, said strikes in Pakistan territory causing “deaths of two innocent children while injuring of three girls”.
While the Pakistan FO did not mention the location of the incident, Iranian state media said the attack took place in the border town of Panjgur in Balochistan, Pakistan.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the “focal point of this operation was the region known as Kouh-Sabz (green mountain)” in Balochistan.
“Two key strongholds of the Jaysh al-Dhulm (Jaish al-Adl) terrorist group in Pakistan” were “specifically targeted and successfully destroyed by a combination of missile and drone attacks”, the Tasnim news agency said.
Local authorities said they had also received information about such an attack, but had no further details. Reports from the area suggested that a missile hit a mosque, partially damaging it and injuring some people.
According to AFP, hours before the attack, Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar had met Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Iran offered no immediate official comment but its state-run Nour News agency said the attack destroyed the Pakistan headquarters of the Jaish al-Adl.
China urges Pakistan, Iran to ‘exercise restraint’
Meanwhile, China has urged Pakistan and Iran to show “restraint” following the incident.
Speaking at a regular briefing today, China Foreign Ministry Spokespeswoman Mao Ning said: “We call on both sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that would cause an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability.”
“We consider both Iran and Pakistan as close neighbours and major Islamic countries,” she added.
It must be noted that both Iran and Pakistan are close partners of Beijing and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation — a political and security group of countries covering much of Eurasia, including China, India and Russia.
‘Unacceptable and condemnable’
The incident also triggered condemnations from across Pakistan.
In a post on social media platform X, caretaker Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai expressed disappointment and said terrorism was a common threat to all countries in the region that required coordinated action.
Such acts of air space violations by Iran undermine neighbourly relation, trust and renewed trade linkages established with Balochistan,” he added.
Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was “shocked at the Iranian breach of Pakistani sovereignty”. He also extended condolences to the grieving families.
“This missile attack is against the spirit of our friendship and principles of good neighbourliness, especially as it undermines the historic relationship between our two countries,” Shehbaz said, stressing that sincere dialogue and meaningful cooperation between the two countries was the need of the hour.
Ex-federal minister and PPP leader Sherry Rehman who is consider hawk in Pakistan termed the incident “unacceptable and condemnable”.
“Pakistan has worked with restraint whenever there’s been turbulence on the Pak-Iran border by terrorist groups, and always sought collective responses to the transnational challenge of terrorism,” she wrote on X.
Hawkish Sherry further stated that such strikes eroded Muslim unity at an “existential moment of great need for jointly charting forums for cooperation while the traffic and painful genocide in Gaza at the hand of Israel”.
“Thirdly, de-escalation will need Tehran to understand that violence and conflict are exactly what non-state actors and terrorists are seeking. That gives them fertile ground for metastasising,” she said.
Sherry further added that Pakistan had no stakes in “fanning the flames of such conflict but will obviously have to respond if better sense does not prevail”.
Activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir too strongly condemned the airstrike, saying that there was no justification for the attack and violation by Iran given the “cordial relations” shared by the two countries.
He appreciated the government’s “measured” response to the incident. “Terrorism is indeed a common threat as reiterated by the Pak Govt & only longstanding solution is sincere and joint efforts between the two countries. Our sovereignty must be paramount,” Nasir added.
‘Violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty’
In the statement released late on Tuesday night, the Pakistan FO vehemently protested the “violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty”, labelling it “completely unacceptable” and cautioning it “can have serious consequences”.
It expressed concern that the “illegal act” took place despite the existence of several established channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran, adding that a “strong protest has already been lodged with the concerned senior official in the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran”.
It said: “Additionally, the Iranian Charge d’affaires has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey our strongest condemnation of this blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and that the responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran.”
“Pakistan has always said terrorism is a common threat to all countries in the region that requires coordinated action. Such unilateral acts are not in uniformity with good neighbourly relations and can seriously undermine bilateral trust and confidence,” the statement further said.
Last month, at least 11 Iranian police officers were killed in an attack overnight on a police station in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan. Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, while visiting the site, had warned Pakistan to prevent terrorist groups from establishing bases within its borders, the official news agency of Iran reported at the time. He had also said that initial investigations suggested the assailants had entered Iran from Pakistan.
Pakistan Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian had strongly condemned the terrorist attack and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to Iran in combating terrorism.
Similar attacks have occurred previously, including on July 23 last year when four policemen were killed while on patrol. That came two weeks after two policemen and four assailants were killed in a shootout in the province, claimed by Jaish Al Adl.
In May, five Iranian border guards perished in clashes with an armed group in Saravan, southeast of Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan.
State media reported at the time that the attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country”, but its members “fled the scene after suffering injuries”.
