Pakistan Iran border fencing project exposed Iranian intentions
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ISLAMABAD - Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan, a paramilitary force, Friday informed the Senate panel that Iran was creating hurdles in Pakistan’s effort to fence the Pak-Iran border.
Lt Colonel Hussain of the FC (South) informed the Senate Standing Committee on Interior that Pakistan was “facing resistance from Iran, not overtly but covertly, in its efforts to fence the border” to block infiltration of terrorists as well as smuggling.
“When we start fencing work, Iran creates problems for us,” the official said adding that though Iran officially used to say that it was ready to help Pakistan in fencing the border.
The official was responding to the questions of lawmakers regarding the Ormara incident. JUI-F lawmaker Senator Talha Mahmood had inquired from the FC whether it was not a failure of the civil armed force that more than 15 terrorists allegedly came from Iran and killed 14 passengers near Ormara area of Balochistan.
The FC official told the committee that FC was after the terrorists who were behind the bloodshed and recently 15 miscreants including at least two involved in the incident had been killed. He also underscored the force should be empowered first as it lacked resources and then held accountable on such incidents.
Lt Colonel Hussain told the meeting which met under the chair of PPP Senator Rehman Malik that surveillance equipment would also be installed along the fence and there would be a real-time monitoring of the border.
Last month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said after Ormara killings that Pakistan would fence its around 950 km border along Iran to ensure peace. He had also alleged that an Iran-based terrorist organization was behind this terrorism.
On April 18, around 15-20 masked men had shot dead 14 passengers of non-Baloch ethnicities at Makran Coastal Highway after intercepting six buses, and forcing them to disembark after checking their identity cards.
