ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday that Islamabad would not allow militants based in Iran and Afghanistan to take advantage of Tehran’s ongoing conflict with Israel to increase its “terrorist” attacks in neighboring Pakistan.
Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province shares porous borders with Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. It has experienced a surge in militant attacks by Baloch separatists and other armed groups in recent years, who demand a greater share of Balochistan’s mineral resources for locals.
Pakistan has remained at odds with both Afghanistan and Iran over instability at its shared, porous borders with the two countries. Islamabad blames Kabul for not taking action against Pakistani Taliban militants who it says regularly launch attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, allegations that Afghanistan denies.
Ties between Islamabad and Tehran have also been strained in the past, with both nations blaming each other for not rooting out militancy in their countries.
“Pakistan leadership has recently had very good, close coordination with both the leadership in Iran and with leadership in Afghanistan ensuring that their soil is not used by the terrorist groups to carry out terrorist attacks in the country,” Iqbal told foreign media reporters during a briefing in Islamabad.
