Recent cross-border attacks by Iran and Pakistan on each other’s territory and their subsequent kiss and make up tell the tale of jihadi sanctuaries in both lands. Both claim they are ‘brotherly’ Islamic nations that are otherwise divided by sectarianism. While Iran is a Shia nation, Pakistan has a Sunni majority. Both have no compunctions in using terror as an instrument of state policy. Contiguous regions of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan are home to ethnic Balochs, which is at the root of separatism.
Balochistan is a resource-rich poor land that aspires for freedom, which no nation is ready to grant. Its nationalism is a powder keg that can be lit in no time. All three nations its people straddle have been playing a dangerous jihadi game to keep insurgency simmering within manageable limits. But last week’s violation of sovereignty showed the limits of that policy. While Iran claims it took out its rogue citizens in airstrikes within Pakistan, the latter followed a similar script barely 48 hours later. With both sides making their respective points using costly firepower, they decided to call it a draw. But the Pakistani army notched up some additional brownie points in the process for its surgical retaliation. It also got a left-handed compliment from the US for showing Iran its place.
The US is on the frontline of defence against Iran that uses non-state actors like Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen to become a pre-eminent regional power in West Asia, displacing Saudi Arabia. It was the impending Saudi detente with Israel that was the trigger for Hamas brutality on October 7, as it massacred 1,400 Israelis in a surprise raid. That 23,000 Palestinians and counting - many of them civilian women and children - have been killed by Israel’s retaliatory strikes does not bother Iran’s conscience. Terror is a self-consuming Bhasmasura that can never bring peace and sustenance to any region.
India took the pragmatic approach of not commenting on the Iran-Pakistan faceoff while reiterating its zero tolerance to terror. The Iranian attack revived memories of Indian airstrikes on Balakot in 2019 deep inside Pakistan territory on a Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold to avenge the Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy. It brought both nuclear powers on the brink of war before better sense prevailed. No wonder, New Delhi defended Tehran’s right to give a fitting response to cross-border threats.