Pakistan is well aware that insecurity along its border with Iran will harm its own interests in the long run, a political analyst said, dismissing speculations that the Islamabad government’s lax control over certain stretches of the shared border is ill-intentioned.
“I do not believe that the Pakistanis intend to make the common border with Iran insecure as it could result in the formation of a coalition among Iran, India and Afghanistan against them and tighten the noose around the country. In fact, theoretically, they will not benefit from such a thing,” Pir Mohammad Mollazehi, an expert on Indian subcontinent issues, also told ISNA.
His comments came after some political experts weighed in on a recent suicide bombing against military forces in southeastern Iran, saying that Pakistan deliberately refuses to reinforce border security in that area to undermine Iran-India relations.
The Feb. 13 attack killed 27 members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and wounded 13 others in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, which hosts the Indian-backed Chabahar.
The militant group Jaish al-Adl or the so-called Army of Justice claimed the bombing.
In May 2016, India signed a deal with Iran to develop the Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar—which sits on the coast along the Sea of Oman—as a transportation corridor for landlocked Afghanistan, and work is underway on the project.
Mollazehi said although some claim that Jaish al-Adl terrorists are bankrolled by the Islamabad government—a charge that it denies—there is a major factor that could be responsible for poor security arrangements along this specific part of the border, which has been a launch-pad for multiple acts of terrorism in the past.
Border Challenges
“As Pakistan is facing serious challenges along its border in the [disputed] Kashmir region as well as the border it shares with Afghanistan, it has focused all its efforts and deployed a majority of its security guards to these areas. In fact, its border with Iran has so far been the safest border and that is why it has not felt an urgent need to reinforce security there,” he explained.
Both Kabul and New Delhi have accused Islamabad of supporting violence and terrorism along the shared borders. Pakistani authorities deny the accusations.
Mollazehi said it is true that strict security measures are not in place in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province—the site of a long-running conflict between security forces and separatists—but it cannot be said that tensions along the border with Iran in this area would be beneficial for Islamabad.
Iran says Pakistan has become a haven for militant groups and has warned that it would take action against them, if Islamabad does not act.
Pakistan’s ambassador in Tehran, who was recently summoned by the Foreign Ministry over the deadly suicide attack, says some ill-wishers want to damage friendly relations between her country and Iran.
“Foreign actors are seeking to damage the brotherly relationship between the two countries, but we should not allow them to achieve their goals,” Riffat Masood also told IRNA in remarks published on Tuesday.
She also called for closer cooperation to secure the border, adding that stronger trade ties could help bring prosperity to the region and eradicate terrorism.
