Islamabad (Web Desk): Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said he hoped that Iran will take visible action against the elements operating from its soil for terrorist acts in Balochistan.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, the foreign minister said that Pakistan has shared actionable intelligence with the Iranian authorities after investigation about the involvement of these elements in the recent terrorist act on the Makran Coastal Highway.
Qureshi said that BRAs, an alliance of three Baloch terrorist organisations, carried out the attack which killed fourteen people including ten personnel of Pakistan.
He said these Baloch terrorist outfits have logistic camps inside the Iranian border
The FM said Iran is a fraternal neighboring country and we have longstanding relationship with it. He expressed the confidence that Tehran will take action against these outfits.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that he also held a detailed telephonic talk with the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and he assured full cooperation to trace these elements.
“The Iranian FM has strongly condemned the incident and reassured full cooperation”, Qureshi said.
The foreign minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan will be visiting Iran on Sunday and “we will get a chance to discuss a mechanism which can be put in place to prevent further incidents”.
Earlier on Saturday, Pakistan lodged a strong protest with Iran for not taking action against the group involved in the killing of 14 passengers after offloading them from the bus on the Makran Coastal Highway in Ormara, Balochistan and demanded Iran to take action against the terrorists.
The Foreign Office (FO) sent a letter of protest to the Iranian Embassy in Islamabad.
“Several times in the past, demands had been put forward to Iran to take action against the banned outfits,” the letter stated.
The letter further alleged that Iran, despite being informed by Islamabad’s intelligence apparatus, took no action against the terrorist entities.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif strongly condemned the attack and said that “Terrorists, extremists and their sponsors are terrified by close relations between Muslim states.”
Iran stands with the people and government of Pakistan, he added.
On April 18, At least 14 people, including Pakistan Navy personnel, were forcibly offloaded from a passenger bus on the Makran Coastal Highway in Balochistan's Ormara area and shot dead by unidentified gunmen.
The passenger bus, travelling between Karachi and Gwadar, was stopped by around 25 unidentified attackers in the Buzi pass area near Hangol after midnight.
The attackers in Frontier Corps Uniforms, offloaded the victims from the bus, forced them to reveal their national identity cards (NICs) for their identification and shot them dead.
