Tensions returned to relations between Iran and Pakistan after a group killed six paramilitary Pakistani troops on the border with Iran.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it summoned Iran's ambassador in Islamabad, Mehdi Honardoost, on Saturday to protest against the terrorist attack that targeted border guards during their patrol of the southwestern province of Balochistan on the border with Iran.
It demanded that Tehran take action against the armed group responsible for the attack.
Honardoost, for his part, expressed his country’s deep sorrow over the incident.
Pakistan authorities said some 30 militants attacked the Frontier Corps convoy, also wounding 14 soldiers.
Terrorists targeted one of the vehicles of security forces through an IED. The forces responded with immediate retaliatory fire and killed four terrorists, said a spokesman of the Pakistani army.
About 30 militants attacked a convoy from Pakistan's Frontier Corps on December 14, killing six soldiers and wounding 14, the country’s foreign ministry explained in a statement.
"There is an urgent need for broader cooperation between the Iranian and Pakistani sides to find a mechanism to prevent such incidents in the future," the statement added.
The separatist Pakistani group, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday.
Pakistani sources indicate that the BLA forces are present in Iranian territory, receive the support of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and carry out operations to destabilize Pakistan, especially in the Balochistan province.
The group had previously carried out operations against the Pakistani army in the region.
Friday’s attack took place several weeks after calm was restored between the two neighbors following the Jaish ul-Adl anti-Tehran group’s kidnapping of a number of Iranian soldiers inside the country’s territory. Iran held Pakistan responsible for the abduction.
