Unidentified gunmen killed nine Pakistani workers in a restive southeastern border area of Iran on Saturday, Pakistan’s ambassador and Iranian state media said, amid efforts by the two countries to mend ties after tit-for-tat attacks.
“Deeply shocked by horrifying killing of 9 Pakistanis in Saravan. Embassy will extend full support to bereaved families,” the Pakistani ambassador to Tehran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, said on the X platform. “We called upon Iran to extend full cooperation in the matter.”
Iranian state media said police were looking for the three gunmen who escaped after the shooting.
The Baluch rights group Haalvash said on its website that the victims were Pakistani labourers who lived at an auto repair shop where they worked. Three others were wounded, it said.
State media said no individuals or groups had claimed responsibility for the shootings in Saravan in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Pakistan has confirmed the killing of a number of its citizens in a terrorist attack in southeastern Iran.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said they were in touch with Iranian authorities and asked Tehran to immediately investigate the incident and hold to account those involved in this “heinous crime.”
“It is a horrifying and despicable incident and we condemn it unequivocally,” spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said.
According to Baloch, Pakistan’s consul in Zahedan was on his way to the hospital where injured people were being treated and will reach there in a few hours.
“He will also meet local authorities, and among other things, impress upon them the urgent need for strong action against the perpetrators of this crime,” she said.
The latest development came just a day after Pakistan sent its ambassador back to Iran to resume his duties in Tehran following a diplomatic row triggered by an exchange of missile attacks on each other’s territories last week.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian is also expected to arrive in Pakistan on Monday at the invitation of his counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani.
Baloch said that Islamabad was taking all necessary measures over the grave matter. “Such cowardly attacks cannot deter Pakistan from its determination to fight terrorism,” said Baloch.
Source: TRT & Agencies
