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Iranian Border Guards Kill 2, Wound 4 Pakistanis

By Orkhan Jalilov November 14, 2018

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Hundreds of Pakistanis attempt to cross into Iran through illegal routes every year, hoping to continue westwards to Europe; many are caught, however, by Iranian security forces, deporting them back to Pakistan. / IRNA news agency

Two Pakistani nationals were killed and another four injured by Iranian border guards when they were trying to illegally cross the Iranian southeastern border on November 11.

A pick-up vehicle carrying seven people was allegedly trying to illegally cross the Iran-Pakistan border along the Prom area in Balochistan’s Panjgur district, when Iranian border guards opened fire. Those traveling hailed from different areas of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces in Pakistan, which border Iran and Afghanistan, respectively. The bodies of the deceased and those injured were taken to the district hospital.

Hundreds of Pakistanis attempt to cross into Iran through illegal routes every year, hoping to continue westwards to Europe; many are caught, however, by Iranian security forces, deporting them back to Pakistan.

Tehran and Islamabad have developed some level of border cooperation to stop the illegal movements, but the system in place is far from perfect. According to Geo News, 38 Pakistani nationals who illegally crossed into Iran and were detained in the late October have been handed over to Pakistani officials by Iranian border officials at the Mirjaveh border crossing. In August, Iranian Security Forces handed over 186 Pakistani nationals.

On October 16, members from the Jaish ul-Adl terrorist group, which has its base in Pakistan, abducted 14 Iranian border guards including local Basij volunteer forces at a border post in the city of Mirjaveh, located in the Iranian southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Following the incident, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made separate visits to Pakistan to discuss the issue with Pakistani officials.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on November 11 that Pakistani officials have promised to introduce more measures for the release of the abducted border guards. During a recent trip he made to Pakistan, the two sides agreed to prevent hostile acts along the common borders in the long run through increasing border cooperation.

On November 5, Pakistan’s ambassador in Tehran, Riffat Masood, told IRNA that the country’s government and army will do their best to cooperate with Iran to release the Iranian border guards held by the terrorists, without giving a specific date for the move.

The Baluchi militant group Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”) has carried out several attacks on Iranian military targets in recent years. Besides Jaish al-Adl, other rebel groups operating in the border regions of Iran and Pakistan include the Baluch nationalist group Jundallah, and Harakat Ansar Iran, one of two groups that had split from Jundallah. In 2013, the group merged with another faction to form yet another Baluch militant group called Ansar Al-Furqan.