PAKISTAN recalled its ambassador to Tehran today after the south-west of the country was hit by Iranian air strikes supposedly targeting the bases of a militant Sunni separatist group.
Islamabad angrily denounced Tuesday’s attack on Baluchistan province as a blatant violation of its airspace and said it had killed two children.
The air strikes imperilled diplomatic relations between the two neighbours, but both sides appeared wary of provoking the other.
Mutual suspicion between Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have over militant attacks have blighted bilateral relations for years.
Tuesday’s Iranian military action also threatens to ignite further violence in the Middle East, inflamed by Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch announced today that Islamabad was recalling its ambassador to Iran over the previous day’s attack.
In her televised remarks, she said: “Last night's unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan's sovereignty by Iran is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the charter of the United Nations.”
Ms Baloch added that Pakistan had asked the Iranian ambassador, who was visiting Tehran when the attack took place, not to return.
Iranian state media reports, later withdrawn without explanation, said that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had targeted bases belonging to militant group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice).
The group, which seeks an independent Baluchistan and has spread across Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, acknowledged the assault in a statement shared online.
Six bomb-carrying drones and rockets struck homes that the militants claim housed children and wives of their fighters.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it had made a strong protest on Tuesday night to its Iranian counterpart and summoned an Iranian diplomat in Islamabad “to convey our strongest condemnation of this blatant violation of Pakistan's sovereignty.
“The responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” it said.
Tehran has made no comment and it remains unclear why it launched the attack at this time, particularly as its foreign minister had met Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister on the same day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The attack on Pakistan came less than a day after Iranian strikes hit northern Iraq on Monday night, killing several civilians.
Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday to receive a protest.
Iran also launched a separate missile attack into Syria.
