Sources close to Pakistani establishment told News18 that backchannel parleys are going on between Islamabad and Tehran after the former launched retaliatory attack on Iran on Tuesday in which nine people, including women and children have been killed.
Sources say both Iran and Pakistan have responded after the former struck an area of Balochistan province near the Iranian border in which two children were killed, according to Islamabad. “It was very important for us to tell Iran that it is not easy to touch the sovereignty of Pakistan,” sources close to the government said.
Pakistan has condemned the attack on its soil by Iran, which insisted that the attack was aimed only at Jaish al-Adl, an ethnic Baloch Sunni Muslim group that is involved in carrying out attacks inside Iran. “What they (Iran) have done was irrational and illegal, and we reserve every right to protect ourselves,” Pakistan government sources said justifying the retaliatory strikes on Iran.
The tensions between the Muslim countries have arisen amid inter-country issues in the Middle East. Iran is apparently not in good terms with its neighbouring countries after it has openly supported Lebanon’s Hezbollah military group against Israel in the Hamas war in Gaza. Iran-backed groups are also targeting US forces in Iraq and Syria while the US and UK have struck Yemen’s Houthi rebels, again backed by Iran, who are bombing ships in the Red Sea.
News18 had already reported that Iran wanted to convey a message to the US through the Balochistan attack in Pakistan.
ISPR Issued Statement
Inter-Services Public Relations issued a statement that “Pakistan carried out effective strikes in the early hours of January 18, 2024 against hideouts inside Iran, used by terrorists responsible for recent attacks in Pakistan. The precision strikes were carried out using killer drones, rockets, loitering munitions and stand-off weapons. Maximum care was taken to avoid collateral damage. Hideouts used by terrorist organisations namely Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan Liberation Front were successfully struck in an intelligence based operation, code name ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’”.
It further said that the targeted hideouts were being used by notorious terrorists including Dosta alias Chairman, Bajjar alias Soghat, Sahil alias Shafaq, Asghar alias Basham and Wazir alias Wazi, amongst others.
Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar today cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos after the strikes in Iran.
Iranian media stated on Thursday that it had summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires over the strikes. According to IRNA, several explosions were heard in the vicinity of Saravan, a city in the south-eastern Iranian province near the Pakistan border.
“A number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation,” the Pakistani ministry said in a statement, describing it as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts”. “The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest, which is paramount and cannot be compromised,” the statement added.
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