TEHRAN - Tehran protested to Islamabad on Friday over a cross-border raid by armed rebels who killed 10 Iranian border guards in the restive southeast.
"We expect those responsible for this terrorist attack to be arrested and prosecuted," President Hassan Rouhani said in a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The foreign ministry also called in the Pakistani ambassador to protest over Wednesday evening's raid in the Mirjaveh district of Sistan-Baluchistan province.
The province has a large Sunni community and has seen repeated attacks by Sunni militants against the security forces of mainly Shiite Iran. The porous border region with Pakistan has also been prey to violence by drug smugglers.
President Rouhani called on Prime Minister Nawaz to prosecute the extremists who had killed 10 Iranian border guards earlier this week, in order to preserve friendly bilateral relations.
"The Iranian territory has never been invaded by its neighbours including Pakistan, but regrettably, lack of appropriate measures and necessary prosecution on the part of Pakistani government have caused great loss of lives and property for the Islamic Republic of Iran," Rouhani said in a statement as quoted by the Iran’s Mehr news agency.
According to the media outlet, Rouhani called on the Pakistani government to prevent such attacks in the future and prosecute the perpetrators in order to maintain close relations between the two nations.
Earlier in the day, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistani Ambassador Asif Ali Khan Durrani to protest against the killing of the border guards by militants attacking from neighbouring Pakistan, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
The Sunni Muslim militant group called Jaish al Adl, or the Army of Justice, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Iran expects Pakistan to take serious and essential measures to arrest and punish those terrorists responsible for the killing of our guards," IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.
"The message was delivered to Ambassador Asif Ali Khan Durrani on Friday," he said.
During the session, Ambassador Durrani was told that Tehran strongly demands Islamabad to act “seriously and decisively” to detain and punish the terrorists, Bahram Qasemi said. “Unfortunately, Pakistan’s borders with us are the least safe ones, while we have tried to provide utmost safety on our borders with Pakistan. We expect the Pakistani side to act on the previous promises…by not allowing such incidents to happen from Pakistan’s borders and soil,” Qasemi added.
Durrani offered condolences and sympathy over the tragedy and said he would inform the respective government of the Islamic Republic’s concerns as soon as possible.
ROUHANI WRITES TO NAWAZ
President Rouhani also wrote to Prime Minister Nawaz, calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
“Pakistan’s safety, growth and efflorescence has always topped Iran’s agenda of ties with the friendly and neighbouring country…Iran’s soil has never been abused against any of its neighbours, including Pakistan,” he wrote.
However, Iran “is very disheartened that it is repeatedly transgressed upon from the Pakistani soil by armed bandits and terrorist hirelings,” he added.
The Iranian chief executive further said certain countries are targeting the Muslim world’s unity through proxy warfare. Such countries, he said, were trying to replace development, prosperity, and esteem in regional countries with underdevelopment, insecurity and poverty. Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari, the chief of Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces, meanwhile, warned Iran’s enemies that such brutal terrorist attacks “will not go unanswered”.
“Such desperate measures will never dent the religiously-devoted and revolutionary Iranian nation’s spirit of gallantry and do not make way for ill-wishers’ inroad [into the country],” he added.
France also condemned the deadly attack on Iranian border guards in a statement, saying, “We offer our condolences to the victims’ families and to the Iranian people.”
