The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) has issued a report detailing its assessment of the recently-concluded general election, expressing deep concerns over a decline in fairness scores compared to previous election cycles.
The Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday said Pakistan has decided to recall its ambassador from Iran and suspend all high-level visits ongoing or planned between the two countries following the “unprovoked violation of its airspace” by Tehran.
Iran, on the other hand, claimed that it targeted an “Iranian terrorist group” and “none of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones”.
The development came after the FO, in a statement released late on Tuesday night, denounced the strikes in Pakistani territory that resulted in the “deaths of two innocent children while injuring of three girls”.
It termed the incident a “violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty”.
While the FO did not mention the location of the incident, Iranian state media said the attack took place in the border town of Panjgur in Balochistan.
Iran’s state-run Nour News agency said the attack destroyed the Pakistan headquarters of the Jaish al-Adl.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the “focal point of this operation was the region known as Kouh-Sabz (green mountain)” in Balochistan.
“Two key strongholds of the Jaysh al-Dhulm (Jaish al-Adl) terrorist group in Pakistan” were “specifically targeted and successfully demolished by a combination of missile and drone attacks”, the Tasnim news agency said.
Local authorities said they had also received information about such an attack but had no further details.
Reports from the area suggested that a missile hit a mosque, partially damaging it and injuring some people.
According to AFP, hours before the attack, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar had met Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In a press briefing in Islamabad today, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said last night’s “unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by Iran” was a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
“This illegal act is completely unacceptable and has no justification whatsoever,” she asserted.
“Pakistan reserves the right to respond to this illegal act and the responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran,” Baloch said, adding that Islamabad had conveyed the message to the Iranian government.
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