Pakistan Protests Deadly Iranian Strikes Allegedly Targeting Militants

January 17, 2024

1 min read

Jaish al-Adl said bomb-carrying drones and rockets struck homes in a village that housed children and wives of their fighters, killing two children and wounding two women and a teenage girl

Pakistan has angrily condemned the Islamic Republic of Iran for launching airstrikes that Tehran claimed targeted bases for a Sunni militant group.

Islamabad denounced the January 16 attack in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan as a “blatant violation” of its airspace, and warned that the incident could have "serious consequences."

The Iranian strikes targeted bases linked to the militant group Jaish al-Adl, or the “Army of Justice,” according to a news agency affiliated with the country's military.

Jaish al-Adl said bomb-carrying drones and rockets struck homes in a village that housed children and wives of their fighters, killing two children and wounding two women and a teenage girl.

The Baluch activist group Haalvsh shared videos purportedly from the site showing a burning building and two charred, small corpses.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office said it had summoned an Iranian diplomat in Islamabad to convey a strong protest over the airstrikes.

“The responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” it said.

China’s Foreign Ministry urged Islamabad and Tehran to “exercise restraint, avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension and work together to maintain peace and stability."

Pakistan’s Balochistan province, as well as Iran’s neighboring Sistan and Baluchestan province, have faced a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades.

Earlier this month, Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for an attack on a police outpost in Sistan and Baluchistan province that claimed the life of at least one officer.

In December, suspected members of the group killed 11 officers in an overnight assault on a police station.

Pakistan is the third country, after Iraq and Syria, to be hit by an Iranian attack within the last few days.

Iraq has recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad in protest of the strikes in its semi-autonomous Kurdish region.