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A day after Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes over an airspace violation by Tehran, the Cabinet Committee on National Security (NSC) is set to convene its emergency meeting on Friday.
Iran on Tuesday had launched attacks in Pakistan targeting what it described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl in the border town of Panjgur in Balochistan, Iranian state media reported, prompting strong condemnation from Islamabad and downgrading of diplomatic ties.
The Iranian strikes were part of a series of attacks carried out by Iran in recent days in Syria and Iraq as a response to recent terrorist attacks on its territory. They have heightened concerns about regional stability, particularly amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
The next day, Pakistan struck “hideouts used by terrorist organisations namely Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF)” in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, in an intelligence-based operation codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’.
Iran’s IRNA news agency had reported that nine people were killed in the attack targeting a village in the city of Saravan, with Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi saying all the dead “were foreign nationals”.
Iran had condemned the strikes, and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government,” according to a statement by foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.
However, the Iranian foreign ministry said in a later press release that it was committed to good neighbourly relations with Pakistan while condemning what it said was an “unbalanced and unacceptable drone attack on non-Iranian villagers”.
Following Pakistan’s tit-for-tat response to Iran’s missile attack, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, who is currently in Switzerland for the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), had decided to cut short his visit.
A source in the PM Office had told Dawn the premier had planned to proceed to another country on a private visit from Davos.
The NSC meeting, to be presided over by the prime minister, will be attended by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Syed Asim Munir and members of the federal cabinet.
Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi confirmed that Kakar had convened the NSC meeting, which is expected to begin at 4:30pm today (Friday). While reluctant to share the meeting’s agenda, Solangi hinted that it would focus on the Pakistan-Iran situation.
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