Pakistan recalls ambassador to Iran over airstrike that killed 2 children

Pakistan recalled its ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday, a day after Iran launched airstrikes on Pakistan that it claimed targeted bases for a militant separatist group. Islamabad angrily denounced the attack as a “blatant violation” of its airspace and said it killed two children.

Tuesday's strike on Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province imperiled diplomatic relations between the two neighbours, but both sides appeared wary of provoking the other. Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that Islamabad is recalling the country’s ambassador to Iran over the previous day’s strikes.

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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.”

Baloch added that Pakistan asked the Iranian ambassador, who was visiting Tehran when the attack took place, not to return.

Iranian state media reports, which were later withdrawn without explanation, said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard targeted bases belonging to the militant group Jaish al-Adl, or the “Army of Justice.”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

Six bomb-carrying drones and rockets struck homes that the militants claim housed children and wives of their fighters. Jaish al-Adl said the attack killed two children and wounded two women and a teenage girl.

Videos shared by the Baluch activist group HalVash, purportedly from the site, showed a burning building and two charred, small corpses.

A Pakistani intelligence report said the two children killed were a six-year-old girl and an 11-month old boy. Three women were injured, aged between 28 and 35. The report also said three or four drones were fired from the Iranian side, hitting a mosque and other buildings, including a house.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it issued a strong protest late on Tuesday with Iran's Foreign Ministry, 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.

Jan Achakzai, a spokesperson for the Baluchistan province, also condemned the attack.

“Pakistan has always sought cooperation from all the countries of region — including Iran — to combat terrorism," "This is unacceptable and Pakistan has a right to respond to any aggression committed against its sovereignty.”

A senior Pakistani security official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to reporters, said Iran had shared no information prior to the strike. He said Pakistan reserved the right to respond at a time and place of the country's choosing and such a strike would be measured and in line with public expectations.

"The dangerous precedent set by Iran is destabilizing and has reciprocal implications,” the official said.

However, there were signs Pakistan was trying to contain any anger over the strike. The country's typically outspoken and nationalistic media covered the attack Wednesday with unusual restraint.

Iranian state media meanwhile continued not to address the strikes, instead discussing a joint naval drill held by Pakistan and the Iranian navy in the Arabian Gulf on Tuesday. Pakistani officials acknowledged the drill, but said it came earlier than Iran's strikes.

Weigh any potential retaliation carefully

Pakistani defence analyst Syed Muhammad Ali said the government would weigh any potential retaliation carefully.

The country's air defence and missile systems are primarily deployed along the eastern border to respond to potential threats from India. But it might consider taking some measures to respond to such strikes from its western border with Afghanistan and Iran, Ali said.

Jaish al-Adl was founded in 2012, and Iranian officials believe it largely operates in Pakistan. The group has claimed bombings and kidnapped members of Iran's border police in the past. In December, suspected Jaish al-Adl members killed 11 people and wounded eight others in a night-time attack on a police station in south-eastern Iran. Another recent attack killed another police officer in the area.

In 2019, Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing targeting a bus that killed 27 members of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Iran has fought in border areas against militants, but a missile-and-drone attack on Pakistan is unprecedented.

It remains unclear why Iran launched the attack now, particularly as its foreign minister had met Pakistan's caretaker prime minister the same day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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