Pak launches protest with Iran over inaction against Omara terror incident

Pakistan on Saturday lodged a strong protest with Iran for not taking action against the group responsible for offloading a passenger bus and allegedly killing 14 people on the Makran Coastal Highway in Ormara in Balochistan on Thursday.

The Foreign Office, in a letter to the Iranian Embassy in Islamabad, said: "15-20 terrorists who camouflaged themselves in Frontier Corps (FC) uniform barricaded the road and stopped 3-4 buses traveling from Ormara to Gwadar on the coastal highway at Buzi Top in the dawn of April 18 and on the identification of the passengers, shot dead 14 personnel belonging to the armed forces of Pakistan. BRAS, which is the alliance of three Baloch terrorist organisations, has claimed responsibility for this terrorist act."

"After the incident, the terrorists who arrived from border region returned to that area," Geo News cited the letter, as saying.

The letter further pointed out that Pakistan "has repeatedly shared intelligence about these activities".

"The information about the hubs of these Baloch terrorist organisations in Iran, having training camps and logistics bases across the border, was shared with Iranian intelligence in the recent past, and on a number of occasions earlier," the letter read.

"Unfortunately, no action has been taken by Iran in this regard, to date," it added.

It stated, "Killing of 14 innocent Pakistanis by terrorist groups based in Iran is a very serious incident that Pakistan protests strongly. Pakistan awaits Iran's response to its request for action against these groups based in Iran, whose locations have been identified by Pakistan a number of times."

On Thursday, unidentified assailants stopped a bus on the Makran Coastal Highway in Ormara, forcibly offloaded 14 passengers after picking them with the help of their National Identity Cards (NICs) and shot them.

Two passengers, who managed to escape the incident, reached the nearest Levies check post after which law enforcement personnel reached the spot and launched an investigation into the incident.