By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday urged the Iranian government to work to bring the culprits involved in the killing of eight Pakistani laborers in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province the previous day.
Expressing "deep" concern about the incident, Sharif, in a statement, called for a joint strategy to combat terrorism in the region.
He called on Tehran to immediately arrest the killers and uncover the motive behind this "heinous" terrorist attack.
Iranian Embassy in Islamabad, in a statement, condemned the incident, terming it "inhuman" and "cowardice."
Terrorism, it said, is a common threat to the region, and all the regional countries have to jointly fight it.
The incident occurred in Iran's Mehrestan region, where eight auto mechanics from Pakistan's largest Punjab province were shot dead by unidentified gunmen while working at a local workshop on Saturday.
A little-known separatist group, Balochistan National Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that the slain workers were members of Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the International Services Intelligence or the ISI.
The attack targeting Pakistanis on Iranian soil drew a parallel to several incidents in Pakistan's Balochistan province, where outlawed separatists have targeted dozens of people from other provinces, mainly from Punjab in recent months.
The minerals-rich Balochistan has long been witnessing a low-intensity rebellion by Baloch separatists who claim the province was forcibly incorporated into Pakistan following the end of British colonial rule in united India in 1947.
In January 2024, nine Pakistani laborers were killed and three critically injured in a similar attack in Saravan city, also located in Iran’s southeastern border region.