‘We understand actions taken in self-defence’: MEA on Iran airstrike on Pakistan

Responding to Iran’s missile strike in terrorist bases in Pakistan, The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that India has “zero tolerance on terrorism. He said that India understands the actions taken by countries in “self-defence.”

“This is a matter between Iran and Pakistan. Insofar as India is concerned, we have an uncompromising position of zero tolerance towards terrorism. We understand actions that countries take in their self-defence,” it said.

Iran launched drone and missile attacks on two bases of the Baluchi militant group Jaish al Adl in Pakistan on Tuesday, a day after its elite Revolutionary Guards attacked targets in Iraq and Syria with missiles.

Following the attack, Islamabad warned that the incident could have “serious consequences” and was “completely unacceptable” in a statement released by Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson in the early hours of Wednesday.

However, Tehran’s top ambassador stated on Wednesday that his nation’s military forces had targeted an “Iranian terrorist group” in Pakistan the day before.

“None of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“The so-called Jaish al-Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted,” he added.

In protest, Pakistan barred Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad, recalled its ambassador from Iran, and protested the strike near the countries’ shared border.

According to Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s assault on “Pakistan’s soil” was a reaction to the recent, lethal strikes carried out by the Jaish al-Adl group against the Islamic Republic, namely on the city of Rask in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan’s southeast.

A policeman was killed in an attack on a local police station on January 10, which occurred about a month after 11 police officers were slain in a similar attack in the area.

The Sunni Muslim extremist organization Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which was founded in 2012 and is prohibited from entering Iran as a “terrorist” group, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

With inputs from agencies.

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