Missing guards: Pakistan pleads for border respect

Tells Tehran that no trace found of the guards.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Tuesday voiced ‘serious concern’ over the Iranian threat to send its troops into Pakistan in a bid to recover five border guards allegedly kidnapped by militants.

In response to the Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rehmani-Fazli’s warning, the foreign ministry spokesperson made it clear that Iranian forces had no authority to cross into Pakistan in violation of international law.

“We must respect each other’s borders,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said in a statement a day after a rare hard hitting public statement from the top Iranian official. Security agencies have combed the area for the missing Iranian guards but could not find any trace of them, she said.

She said the security organisations of both the countries were in regular contact and a senior level Pak-Iran border meeting was scheduled in Quetta on Wednesday, at which relevant information is to be exchanged.

According to Iranian media reports, the guards were seized on February 6 in the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan by militants, who allegedly took them across the border into Pakistan.

“If Pakistan doesn’t take the needed steps to fight against the terrorist groups, we will send our forces onto Pakistani soil. We will not wait for this country,” Rahmani-Fazli was quoted as telling the semi-official Mehr news agency.

The spokesperson said Pakistan had noted with serious concern his statement, regretting the suggestions of negligence on its part over the incident, especially when Pakistan’s active support against terrorist groups in the past, was well-known and acknowledged by Iran.

“Pakistan has already informed the Iranian authorities that its Frontier Corps teams have intensively combed the entire region but could not verify the entry or presence of these Iranian border guards on its territory. It is, therefore, possible that the miscreants along with the abducted border guards are still hiding within the Iranian territory,” Tasnim explained.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2014.