Pakistan threatens Iran with ‘serious consequences’ following missile, drone attacks

Several Iranian news outlets reported on Tuesday evening that missiles and drones were launched at the headquarters of Jaish al-Adl, a group that Tehran has accused of the attack that killed a dozen Iranian police in December.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran and the strike inside Pakistani territory which resulted in the death of two innocent children while injuring three girls,” the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said in a statement, adding that the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty was “completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences”.

Terrorism is a threat to all countries in the region and requires “coordinated” action rather than unilateral moves that are “not in conformity with good neighborly relations and can seriously undermine bilateral trust”, the ministry noted.

The Iranian charge d’affaires has been summoned to receive a protest note about the “blatant violation” of Pakistani sovereignty, while an appropriate demarche was sent to Tehran as well, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced.

A series of explosions were reported on Tuesday night in Panjgur, a city in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, near the Iranian border. According to Iranian media, “two key strongholds” of Jaish al-Adl were “obliterated by precision strikes” by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).