The shootings come as Tehran and Islamabad work to normalize relations after recent attacks.

Gunmen have killed nine Pakistanis in a restive southeastern border area of ​​Iran, Pakistan said, as the two countries sought to mend ties after recent attacks.

“Deeply shocked by the horrific murder of nine Pakistanis in Saravan. The embassy will extend its full support to the bereaved families,” Pakistani Ambassador to Tehran Muhammad Mudassir Tipi said on social media platform X on Saturday. “We have called on Iran to fully cooperate in this matter.”

Earlier in the day, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported the attack in Saravan, Sistan-Baluchistan province. It identified the dead only as foreign nationals and said no individuals or groups had claimed responsibility for the shootings.

The Baloch human rights group Haalvash said on its website that the victims were Pakistani workers who lived at an auto repair shop where they worked. Three others were injured, it said.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry called the attack a “terrorist incident” and said it was in contact with Iranian authorities and had asked Tehran to investigate the incident.

“It is a terrible and despicable incident and we condemn it in the strongest terms,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said following the news.

“We are in contact with the Iranian authorities and have stressed the need to immediately investigate the incident and hold those involved in this heinous crime accountable.”

Tensions between Iran and Pakistan

The shootings came as Iranian state media reported that the Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors were returning to their posts after being recalled last week when neighboring countries launched missile strikes against alleged armed group targets.

“The Iran-Pakistan border provides an opportunity for economic exchanges… and must be protected from any insecurity,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Ambassador Mudassir Tipi as he accepted his credentials on Saturday, according to Iranian state media reports.

Sistan-Balochistan, one of the few predominantly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran, has seen ongoing unrest involving cross-border drug smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baloch ethnic minority and armed groups.

On January 18, Pakistan launched airstrikes on “militant targets” in Iran, two days after Iran launched attacks on its territory.

Tehran said it targeted Jaish al-Adl, a group that has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Iran in recent months. The group, founded in 2012, is blacklisted in Iran as a “terrorist” organization.

The Iranian attacks, which Pakistan said killed at least two children, drew sharp rebuke from Islamabad, which recalled its ambassador from Tehran and prevented the Iranian envoy from returning to Islamabad.

Tehran also summoned Islamabad’s charge d’affaires over the Pakistani attacks that killed at least nine people.

However, the two countries announced last Monday that they had decided to do so De-escalation and resumed diplomatic missions, with the two ambassadors returning to their posts.