No Man's Land: Iran and Pakistan's Deadly Border

Recent attacks in Iran by the Sunni militant group Jaish ul Adl (Party of Justice) have undermined relations between Iran  Pakistan. In February, the group abducted five Iranian border guards in the Sistan-Balochistan province, leading to threats of military action from Iran’s Interior Minister Abdulreza Rahmani-Fazli. His remarks shocked and annoyed Pakistanis, and Pakistan replied that it would not tolerate such a move.

Iranian officials have repeatedly claimed that the militants took the border guards into Pakistani Balochistan, a charge Pakistani officials denied.

In March, the kidnapping prompted the two countries to hold a joint border commission meeting in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, to discuss ways to recover the hostages. The Deputy Governor of Sistan-Balochistan, Ali Asghar Shikari, visited Quetta to convey Iran’s message to his Pakistani counterparts. "The kidnapping of the guards has harmed the feelings of the Iranian people," he told a press conference.

Four of the border guards were released in April, but a fifth had been killed by the militant group in late March. The Iranian Student News Agency quoted a Jaish ul-Adl statement suggesting that a Sunni cleric had mediated to bring about the guards’ release, while Fars News reported that the fifth guard’s body had been delivered to the Iranian Embassy in Pakistan.

Iran has frequently claimed that Sunni militant groups roam freely in Pakistani Balochistan, and use the area as a refuge after carrying out terrorist attacks in Iran. The groups claim they are deprived of religious, political and social rights.

Does Iran support Baloch Separatists Fighting Against Pakistan?

Meanwhile Pakistan, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Iran, has accused Iranian border guards of making violent incursions into the Pakistani border town of Mashkail, according to Asad ur Rehman Gailani, the Home Secretary in Balochistan. Rockets fired by Iranian guards have killed approximately 10 Pakistani civilians in the border region over the past decade.

A high level Pakistani officer who declined to be named says that Iran supports Baloch separatists fighting against Pakistan. He suggested that this was related to Iranian discomfort about the development of the Gwadar Deep Sea Port. Gwadar, which is 47 miles east of the Iranian border, will compete with the India-backed Iranian port at Chabahar by providing trade access to land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asian States through Pakistan.

Suspicion and blame games have marked the last decade of relations between the two countries. Iran is quick to point the finger at Pakistan whenever terrorists strike in Sistan-Balochistan. The region is home to ethnic Baloch, who adhere to the Sunni strand of Islam. The Baloch say they are treated as second-class citizens in Iran. Professor Rahim Raheemi, a former professor of political science at Abadan University in Iran, who fled to Quetta in 2004 to seek political asylum, says, “We are marginalized and deprived of our due rights”.

Professor Raheemi says two unknown motorcyclists opened fire on his house in the Hudda area of Quetta, killing a young man who was living with him. “We are not even safe here [because] the Iranian spy service is behind the murder of my young colleague,” Raheemi says. The exiled ethnic Baloch Iranians seek support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to get political asylum. “We are fighting for Baloch rights inside Iran,” he says.

Prior to his execution in June 2010, the founder of the outlawed Jundullah militant group, Abdul Malik Reki had stated, “We are not against Shi’as. Rather, we fight against oppression [against] Sunnis inside Iran.” Iran executed Reki, who was an ethnic Baloch, after accusing him of carrying out a series of terrorist attacks in the country.

Families Split by the Border

Iran and Pakistan have formed a joint border commission to resolve issues relating to their long frontier. Meanwhile, people living on both sides of the border, most of them ethnic Baloch, continue to suffer. They share historic, cultural, religious and social ties, but terrorist incidents have prompted the two countries to maintain tight security along their porous border, where previously there used to be few restrictions.

Those living in Pakistan’s border districts are completely dependent on Iran in for commodities and jobs. Riaz Baloch, a resident of Pakistani Balochistan, says that people from the region must now go through strict security checks to enter Iran. Baloch says members of his family live in Iranian Sistan-Balochistan, but deteriorating relations between the two countries mean they cannot see one other.

The two countries must take practical and effective steps to remove the trust deficit. Iran must stop cross border attacks on Pakistani soil, and Pakistan has to expel Sunni militants operating on its side. Both countries must make joint efforts to curb the menace of terrorism and extremism. In view of increased incidents along the border, Pakistan and Iran have agreed to establish a  telephone hotline to avert misunderstandings in the future. This initiative by the two neighbors is welcome, though it is only a start.

''View images of the Iran’s soldiers returning to their home towns in April''