Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan has urged Iran to conduct a “comprehensive investigation” after sharing its border with Balochistan’s southwestern province after eight Pakistani migrant workers were killed over the weekend in Pakistan’s Sistan Balshestan province.
The attack took place on Saturday in Merestan County, located about 230 km (142 miles) from the Pakistan border where unidentified attackers attacked the workshop.
All eight workers, who belonged to various regions of Pakistan’s Punjab and worked as a dynamic, were tied up and shot dead, according to Iranian media reports.
The Baroque Nationalist Army (BNA), a little-known Baroque group seeking independence from Pakistan, has argued responsibility for the attack.
Iran and Pakistan quickly condemned the attack with Pakistan’s Iranian ambassador, Reza Amiri Moghadam, saying that “terrorism is a common threat across the region.”
Tehran’s Pakistani envoy, Mudasir Tipu, confirmed in his statement on X that the two countries are coordinating their efforts to investigate the incident.
Previously, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had called for a joint response to attackers. “Pakistan strongly condemns the inhumane and coronavirus killing of its people in Iran. We hope for full cooperation on Iran’s part of investigation into the issue and in the timely repatriation of the victims’ sites,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
But experts say the fatal attacks only highlighted a tense security environment along the shared borders – both countries traded missile fires last year and accused each other of having a deadly armed group.
Statement of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran from Pakistan:
The Islamic Republic Embassy in Iran has strongly condemned inhumane, coronavirus armed incidents against Iranian Cistan and eight Pakistani citizens in Balattistan province.
Terrorism is a chronic light-like thing…pic.twitter.com/qbjxe6q3tc– Reza Amiri Moghadam (@iranambpak) April 13, 2025
Tensions along the border
The Pakistan-Iran border has been strained since January 2024, when Iran launched an attack on Pakistan’s soil.
The Iranian government said it was targeting Jaish Al-Adl, an armed group that accused multiple attacks in Iran. Pakistan responded a day later with a retaliatory attack that he said was based on “reliable intelligence” about “a massive terrorist activity that is looming across the border.”
Just a few days after the exchange, at least nine Pakistani workers were killed in Iran’s Saravan region by an unidentified man in a surprising similar act of violence against the Mefrestan incident.
Balochistan, a region spanning Iran and parts of Afghanistan, has experienced a surge in violence over the past year, with separatist group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) (BLA) carrying out several major attacks.
Last month, the BLA launched a bold attack by hijacking the Jaffer Express, a Pakistani passenger train with around 400 people. Following an operation that lasted more than 24 hours, Pakistani security forces overcame the hijacking and eliminated at least 33 attackers. Thirty people were also killed, including 26 passengers and four security guards.
According to the 2023 census, Balochistan is home to an estimated 240 million people in Pakistan, with around 15 million people. However, despite the wealth of natural resources such as coal, gold, copper and gas, it remains the poorest region in the country.
It also hosts one of Pakistan’s major deep sea ports in Gwadar. It is an important hub of the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), designed to connect southwestern China to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.
Baroque nationalist groups argue that the Pakistani state is ignoring people while exploiting the resources of the state and promoting separatist movements and armed rebellion. Baroque activists have also accused them of being behind human rights abuses and forced disappearance – accusations denied by the Pakistani government.
What attempts are BNA trying to reaffirm its existence?
Mehsud, who is also co-founder of security research portal Khorasan Diary, claims that Tehran does not have a Baroque armed separatists, but multiple incidents over the past 15 months suggest that Baroque separatist groups are operating on the Iranian border.
The BLA is Balochistan’s most powerful group, targeting law enforcement officials and China’s interests, but Mehsud said BNA, the group that argued for the attack on Saturday, has fewer and more limited resources.
There is no evidence to suggest that Iran is somehow supporting the BNA. In fact, the Baroque groups look at Iran as they consider Pakistan as the occupying person.
“BNA has faced internal divisions in the past and is quite behind BLA in terms of fighter strength, including suicide squads, financial resources, propaganda capabilities, and weapon availability,” Mehsud added.
He believes the latest attack is an attempt by the BNA to reaffirm its existence.
Baroque rebels against threats to Iran
An Islamabad-based analyst adds that BNA is opposed to Iran, but the threat to Tehran’s interests appears to be limited compared to Jaish Al-Adl, a baroque group that has repeatedly attacked Iran in the past.
It may explain Iran’s approach to the two groups, he said – one prioritizes as a security threat over the other.
“Iran’s response to these groups is very different and while it has not taken action against the BNA, it will permanently target Jaish Al-Adl,” Mehsud said.
Still, following the attack on April 12, Iran has been calling for regional response to armed groups. This creates the possibility of greater coordination between Tehran and Islamabad in addressing security threats on both sides of the border.
“The struggle against this ominous phenomenon requires collective and joint efforts by all countries to eradicate all forms of terrorism and extremism that have insisted on the lives of thousands of innocent people in recent decades,” Moghadam, Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, writes of X.
