TEHRAN: Iranian Presi­dent Hassan Rouhani wrote a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the Pakistani ambassador on Friday in protest against “a cross-border raid by rebels” in which at least nine Iranian guards were killed earlier this week.

Referring to the Wed­nesday evening assault on the guards in Mirjaveh district of Sistan-Baluches­tan province, President Rouhani said in his message: “We expect those responsible for this terrorist attack to be arrested and prosecuted.”

The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted the president as saying: “Regrettably, a lack of appropriate measures and necessary prosecution on the part of the Pakistani government has caused great loss of lives and property for Iran.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Minis­try spokesman Bahram Qasemi told the country’s official news agency that Pakistani ambassador had been summoned to receive a protest.

“Iran expects Pakistan to take serious and essential measures to arrest and punish those terrorists responsible for the killing of our nine guards,” he said, according to IRNA.

“This message was delivered to Ambassador Asif Ali Khan Durrani on Friday,” Mr Qasemi added.

The Jaish-ul-Adl group, which has claimed responsibility for the deadly assault, has in the past carried out several attacks against Iranian security forces, aimed at highlighting what they say is discrimination against Sunnis and the ethnic Baluch in Shia-dominated Iran. Iran denies the claim.

The group killed eight border guards in 2015 and 14 guards two years earlier.

Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province lies on a major transit route for drug smugglers. It has long been plagued by unrest.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017