Iran Says Militants From Pakistan Killed Eight Border Guards
Incident, denied by Pakistan, comes before Iran’s foreign minister visits Islamabad to urge it to stay out of Yemen conflict
Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, right, talks with his Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Tehran on
ISLAMABAD—Iran said Tuesday that militants had crossed over from Pakistan and killed eight border guards, a day before the Iranian foreign minister is due in Islamabad to press Pakistan to stay out of the Yemen conflict.
Militants from Jaish ul-Adl, a Sunni militant group based in Pakistan’s sparsely populated western province of Balochistan, clashed just inside Iran with Iranian border guards on Monday night and killed eight of them, according to a report from Fars, the semiofficial Iranian news agency.
“The armed outlaws fled to Pakistan immediately [after the attack],” said Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, a senior police official in Tehran, Fars reported.
Pakistan has tried to balance standing by long-term ally Saudi Arabia, which asked Pakistan to join its military coalition against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, while not alienating neighboring Iran. Pakistan says that its forces aren't part of the offensive but that it remains ready to defend Saudi territory if it came under attack.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia asked for Islamabad’s participation not because it needed Pakistan’s military assets or manpower, but because it wanted the moral support.
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“It will be symbolic to be part of the coalition,” said Mr. Asif.
Simbal Khan, a security analyst based in Islamabad, said the attack could be an attempt to ignite tensions between Pakistan and Iran ahead of the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Wednesday. But she said the impact of the killings would go in Iran’s favor.
“This demonstrates the dangers of getting embroiled in Yemen,” said Ms. Khan. “If Pakistan took sides there, such border incidents would increase.”
Pakistan’s forces are already stretched as they deal with the country’s troubled borders with Afghanistan and India, leaving its long border with Iran relatively poorly manned. Although Pakistan has never been close to Iran, ties have improved in recent years. Sunni-majority Pakistan is estimated to have the second largest Shiite population in the world, after Iran.
“We have twice as many posts as the Iranians on the border where the attack took place, and there is also heavy patrolling from our side,” said a Pakistani security official in Balochistan, who denied Iranian accounts of the attack. “There is no question of the militants crossing over from our side, but we have launched an investigation into the matter.”
Pakistan has also previously denied incursions into Iran from its territory.
Without confirming the incident, Pakistan’s defense minister said militants on both sides of the Pakistan-Iran border were a problem.
“In our Balochistan, and on the other side in Iran’s Baluchistan, on both sides, such elements are operating which are an irritant in our relationship,” Mr. Asif said. “I think this will be discussed when the foreign minister of Iran visits Pakistan tomorrow.
In a message posted on its Twitter account and blog, Jaish ul-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack and showed pictures of a burning Iranian military vehicle and weapons it claimed were captured in the raid. It didn’t say whether the attack was carried out from Pakistani territory. The outfit claims to represent the minority Sunni Iranians in eastern Iran.
The attack was the worst since Jaish ul-Adl claimed the killing of 14 Iranian border guards in October 2013.
Mr. Zarif will travel to Oman and Pakistan Wednesday “to convey Iranian deep concern about the humanitarian plight under way in Yemen due to the Saudi air raids,” according to the government in Tehran.
Reports from official Saudi outlets have said Pakistan is part of the Yemen operation, but Islamabad denies them. Some 1,000 Pakistani soldiers have been deployed in Saudi Arabia before the operation got under way, but Pakistan insists they are not combat troops.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told a special parliamentary debate on Yemen that he was working with Turkey to defuse the conflict.
“We should try to resolve these issues, we should sit down with other friends, Islamic countries, and talk,” Mr. Sharif told Parliament Tuesday.
Opposition politicians were almost unanimous that Pakistan must not join the Yemen offensive but instead play the role of peacemaker.
“In Yemen, if we, God forbid, enter this war, I think it will start a big fire in our country too,” opposition politician Ghulam Ahmad Bilourtold Parliament.
Separately, Egypt, which is part of the Saudi military coalition for Yemen, sent its defense minister to Pakistan Tuesday, where he met with the Pakistani army chief, said Pakistan’s military.
—Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
Egypt sent its defense minister, who is also the commander in chief of its armed forces, to Pakistan on Tuesday. An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the posts as being held by two people. (April 7, 2015)
Iran Says Militants From Pakistan Killed Eight Border Guards - WSJ
