INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Unidentified gunmen killed nine Pakistani workers in a restive southeastern border area of Iran on Saturday, Pakistan&s ambassador and
Iranian state media said, amid efforts by the two countries to mend ties after tit-for-tat attacks.&Deeply shocked by horrifying killing of
Embassy will extend full support to bereaved families,& the Pakistani ambassador to Tehran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, said on the X platform
&We called upon Iran to extend full cooperation in the matter.&Iranian state media said police were looking for the three gunmen who escaped
after the shooting, Reuters reported.The Baluch rights group Haalvash said on its website that the victims were Pakistani labourers who
lived at an auto repair shop where they worked
Three others were wounded, it said.State media said no individuals or groups had claimed responsibility for the shootings in Saravan in
Sistan-Baluchestan province.&It is a horrifying and despicable incident and we condemn it unequivocally,& Pakistani Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said
&We are in touch with Iranian authorities and have underscored the need to immediately investigate the incident and hold to account those
involved.&The shooting occurred ahead of a planned visit on Monday to Pakistan by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.Iranian
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani condemned the shootings.&Iran and Pakistan won&t allow enemies to damage the brotherly ties
between the two countries,& he said in a statement.State media said the Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors were returning to their postings
after being recalled when the neighbouring countries exchanged missile strikes last week aimed at what each said were militant targets.&The
Iran-Pakistan border creates an opportunity for economic exchanges… and must be protected against any insecurity,& Iranian President
Ebrahim Raisi told Mudassir Tipu as he received the ambassador&s credentials on Saturday, state media reported.The impoverished
Sistan-Baluchestan region has long been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and separatist militants and smugglers
carrying opium from Afghanistan, the world&s top producer of the drug.Iran has some of the lowest fuel prices in the world and this has also
led to increasing fuel-smuggling to Pakistan and Afghanistan despite a crackdown by Iranian border guards.The post Gunmen in Iran kill
nine Pakistanis days after tit-for-tat strikes first appeared on Ariana News.
