Pakistan threatened to retaliate against Iran after the attack. Photo: Reuters.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that Islamabad was recalling the country’s ambassador to Iran over the January 15 attack on the unstable Baluchistan province in southwestern Pakistan.
“Iran’s unjust and flagrant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty last night is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the United Nations charter,” she said in a televised address. .
Spokesman Baloch added that Pakistan had asked the Iranian ambassador, who was visiting Tehran when the attack occurred, not to return. Iran did not immediately acknowledge Pakistan’s decision.
Iranian state media reports, later retracted without explanation, said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had targeted bases belonging to the Jaish al-Adl militant group , or “Army of Justice”. The group, which seeks an independent Baluchistan and has spread across Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, acknowledged the attack in a statement shared online.
Six drones and bomb-carrying missiles attacked homes that rebels said contained the wives and children of their fighters. Jaish al-Adl said the attack killed two children and injured two women and a teenage girl.
Videos shared by activist group Baluch HalVash, believed to be from the site, show a burning building and two small charred corpses.
Pakistani intelligence reports said the two children who died were a 6-year-old girl and an 11-month-old boy. Three women were injured, aged between 28 and 35. The report also said three or four drones were fired from the Iranian side, hitting a mosque and other buildings, including one house.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said Iran had shared no information before the attack. He said Pakistan reserves the right to respond at a time and place of its choosing and such attack would be calculated and in accordance with public expectations.
“The dangerous precedent set by Iran is destabilizing and has reciprocal implications,” the official said.
However, there are signs that Pakistan is trying to contain outrage over the attack. The country’s usually outspoken and nationalist media covered Wednesday’s attack with unusual restraint.
Meanwhile, Iranian state media continued to make no mention of the attacks, instead discussing a joint naval exercise organized by Pakistan and the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday. Pakistani officials acknowledged the exercise but said it took place earlier than the Iranian attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian admitted Tehran carried out attacks in Pakistan while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He defended this action while the interviewer repeatedly said that Pakistan had condemned the attack.
Iran also said the Revolutionary Guard killed a suspected Jaish al-Adl member in Rask near the Pakistani border. Pakistani defense analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said the government would carefully consider all possibilities of retaliation.
The country’s air and missile defense systems are mainly deployed along its eastern border to deal with potential threats from India. But it may consider taking some measures to respond to such attacks from its western borders with Afghanistan and Iran, Ali said.
Iran’s attack jeopardized diplomatic relations between the two neighbors, but both sides appeared cautious in provoking the other. Iran and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons and have long been suspicious of each other over rebel attacks.
The attack also threatens to spark more violence in a Middle East region restive due to Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran launched attacks late Monday in Iraq and Syria following a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State that killed more than 90 people earlier this month.
Jaish al-Adl was founded in 2012 and Iranian officials believe the group operates mainly in Pakistan. The group has claimed bombings and kidnappings of members of Iran’s border police in the past. In December, suspected Jaish al-Adl members killed 11 people and wounded eight others in a nighttime attack on a police station in southeastern Iran. Another recent attack killed another police officer in the area.
