THE Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Wednesday that four security personnel were martyred during terrorist activity from across the Pakistan-Iran border in Baluchistan’s Panjgur district.
It further said that the militants used Iranian soil to target a convoy of security forces patrolling along the border.
This has come a few days after both Pakistan and Iran signed a series of MOUs to enhance their bilateral cooperation in diverse fields and also agreed to continue consultations to sign the free trade agreement.
We believe the latest attack is an another attempt by our enemy to create mistrust between the two brotherly countries and such sordid designs can be foiled through greater level of engagement on security matters as well.
The border zone of Pakistan and Iran has long acted as a hub of operations and activities of terrorist outfits backed by our arch enemy India.
In the past few years, there have been multiple attacks. Two attacks on the Makran Coastal Highway near Ormara in 2019 and 2020 resulted in the death of more than two dozen security personnel.
After the April 2019 attack, our then Foreign Minister had claimed that the militants were operating from Iran where they have training camps and logistic facilities.
The FM even mentioned that Pakistan had provided Iran with actionable intelligence. The Iranian side have also repeatedly raised their security-related concerns with Pakistan on a number of occasions.
Indeed there should not be any blame game but these terrorists should not be allowed to hurt the relationship which appears to be heading in the upward trajectory.
Both the countries had last year established a joint working group on border issues. This should meet regularly to really make Pakistan-Iran border a border of peace and friendship.
Both the countries should enhance their intelligence sharing so that the terrorists find no space on either side of the border. Doing so will also help decisively act against human and drug traffickers.
