Tit-for-tat: Iran summons Pakistani envoy over border guard deaths

Tehran asks Islamabad to curb such incidents

TEHRAN: Iran has summoned Pakistan’s ambassador and demanded immediate steps to stop attacks by ‘terrorists’ that sparked deadly clashes on the countries’ border, state media reported on Sunday. The move came a day after Islamabad summoned Tehran’s top diplomat to lodge protest against killing of its security official by Iranian border guards.

Noor Muhammad Jadmani was called to the foreign ministry on Saturday evening following the deaths in the restive border province of Sistan-o-Balouchestan, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said.



Two Iranian border guards and a Pakistani paramilitary officer were killed in a shooting on Thursday evening, sources on the two sides said. Iran said militants had tried to infiltrate the country, while Islamabad said the Iranian guards opened ‘unprovoked fire’.

“It is unacceptable that terrorists and rebels attack our country from Pakistani territory and kill our border guards,” Iranian foreign ministry’s western Asia director, Rasul Salami, told IRNA. He asked Islamabad to “take serious steps to prevent any recurrence of such incidents,” the news agency said.

Thursday’s border shooting came after militant attacks killed five people in Sistan-o-Balouchestan earlier this month, four of them security personnel. Iranian media said 14 people were arrested in connection with those attacks.

Last month, an Iranian soldier was killed and two pro-government militiamen wounded in an attack authorities blamed on militant group Jaishul Adl.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2014.