Iran-Pakistan Crossfire Puts Region on Edge
Srinagar: Amid rising hostilities rippling through the region, Pakistan on Thursday carried out unprecedented missile strikes inside Iran in response to an earlier Iranian strike on a terrorist hideout in its Baluchistan province.
The tensions between two Muslim countries escalated at a time when Iran’s allies, so called Axis of Resistance- have stepped up attacks on Israeli forces and its allies across the Middle East against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
Iran also staged airstrikes late Monday in Iraq and Syria over an Islamic Stateclaimed suicide bombing that killed over 90 people in early January and attack inside Pakistan was in response to killing of 11 policemen by Jash-al-Adl operating out of Pakistan.
On Tuesday Iran hit what it called Jash-al-Adl hideout inside Pakistan prompting angry reaction and today's retaliation from Pakistan.
Pakistan’s military described using “killer drones, rockets, loitering munitions and standoff weapons” in the attack. Standoff weapons are missiles fired from aircraft at a distance — likely meaning Pakistan’s fighter jets didn’t enter Iranian airspace. It said the targets were bases used by the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the associated Baloch Liberation Army.
In Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-haq Kakar would cut short a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos and return home.
A day before, Iran conducted an airstrike in Baluchistan Province in Pakistan. The Iranian government later said that the strike in Pakistan, as well as attacks it conducted this week in Iraq and Syria, showed that Iran would hit back forcefully at enemies anywhere.
An emboldened Iran has been using its allied forces against Israel and its allies since the war in Gaza began in October after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
Pakistan denounced the Iranian strike as a blatant violation of international law and warned on Wednesday that it “reserves the right to respond.”
Reacting to the strikes Iran summoned Pakistan's chargé d'affaires demanding Islamabad's "immediate explanation" about the attack.
Pakistan, which is grappling with political and economic troubles, indicated on Thursday that it did not want further escalation in its clash with Iran. In a statement, the Pakistani military called the two neighbors “brotherly countries” and said that “dialogue and cooperation is deemed prudent in resolving bilateral issues” between them.
In carefully crafted statements issued on Thursday, Pakistani officials refrained from directly accusing Iran. Pakistan’s narrative mirrored Iran’s rationale for its own strikes, saying that the Pakistani actions similarly targeted only those separatists who had taken refuge across the border.
After Iran’s strike in Pakistan, Iranian officials said that the attack had been aimed at terrorists who threatened Iran, but the Pakistani authorities rejected that account, citing what they said were civilian casualties from the strike.
Pakistan's comments after its retaliatory strikes signal a desire to keep the row contained, but analysts warned it could get out of hand."Iran's motivation for attacking Pakistan remains opaque but in light of broader Iranian behaviour in the region it can escalate," Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert on South Asia security at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told Reuters.
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