DUBAI (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen killed nine Pakistani workers in a restive border area in southeastern Iran on Saturday, Pakistan’s ambassador and a rights group said, as the two countries strive to reestablish their ties after mutual attacks.
“Deeply shocked by the horrific murder of 9 Pakistanis in Saravan. The embassy will extend its full support to the bereaved families,” Pakistani Ambassador to Tehran Muhammad Mudassir Tipi said on Platform X. “We have called on Iran to cooperate fully on this issue.”
Baloch rights group Haalvash said on its website that the victims were Pakistani workers who lived in an auto repair shop where they worked. Three other people were injured.
Iranian state media identified the dead only as foreign nationals and said no individual or group had claimed responsibility for the shooting in Saravan, near the Pakistani border in Sistan-Baluchistan province.
“This is a horrific and despicable incident and we unequivocally condemn it,” said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch. “We are in contact with the Iranian authorities and have stressed the need to immediately investigate the incident and hold those involved to account.”
The shooting came as, according to Iranian state media, the Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors returned to their posts after being recalled when the two countries exchanged missile fire last week, targeting what they have each labeled militant targets.
The poor region has long been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces, separatist militants and smugglers transporting opium from Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of the drug.
Fuel prices in Iran are among the lowest in the world, which has also led to fuel smuggling to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
(Reporting by the Dubai editorial team, with Ariba Shahid in Karachi; written by William Maclean and Jason Neely, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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