Iran Urges Pakistan’s Hunt for Border Guards Attackers


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani strongly decried the recurrence of terrorist attacks against Iran launched from inside Pakistan, calling on the eastern neighbor to prosecute and bring to justice perpetrators of a Wednesday attack that killed 10 Iranian troops at the common border.

In a letter to Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif on Thursday, President Rouhani blamed Islamabad’s “inaction” and “lack of necessary measures” for the occasional damages to Iran and for deaths of Iranian border guards or civilians.

It came after members of the so-called Jaish al-Adl Takfiri terrorist group on Wednesday launched an attack from Pakistan against an Iranian border post at the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan, killing 9 soldiers. Iran’s Police said the martyrs were killed by long-range weapons fired from Pakistani soil.

Elsewhere in his letter, the Iranian president said the Islamabad government is expected to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of the fatal attack in order to “maintain and boost good and brotherly relations” with Iran.

This is not the first time that outlaws and terrorist groups target the Iranian forces, and such “bitter incidents” are recurring despite pledges by the Pakistani officials, Rouhani deplored.

He also pointed a finger of blame at the countries waging “proxy wars” with the purpose of harming the Islamic world’s unity, saying they seek to replace the region’s prosperity and growth with terrorism, violence, insecurity, poverty, and underdevelopment.

Earlier on Thursday, President Rouhani had released a message in condemnation of the “cowardly attack” on the Iranian forces, calling on the country’s Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to pursue the case seriously in order to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.