Iran Urged ISI, Pak Army Not to Shelter Jaish al-Adl Militants, Then Came the Missiles

Tens of thousands of Iranians and a commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, in 2019 urged former.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani to give the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) more freedom to act against Pakistan for sheltering and harbouring separatist elements.

The Iranian armed forces officer was addressing a gathering which was mourning the 27 Revolutionary Guards killed in a suicide attack perpetrated by Jaish-al-Adl who Iran claims is backed by Pakistan, with support from Saudi Arabia.

“The government of Pakistan must pay the price of harbouring these terrorist groups and this price will undoubtedly be very high. The Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer observe the previous reservations and will directly act to counter such acts,” Jafari told mourners gathered at the city of Isfahan’s Bozorgmehr Square, according to an AFP report.

At that time, Jafari blamed Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency for sheltering the perpetrators.

Iran’s former president Hassan Rouhani even demanded Pakistan act “decisively against anti-Iranian terrorists” in a phone call with former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan in 2019.

He said that Pakistan should not allow other nation’s with vested interests to spoil Iran-Pakistan relations, alluding to the United States and Israel, as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which it accuses of aiding jihadist groups responsible for attacks from Pakistani soil.

Five years later, the Iranian government led by Ebrahim Raisi appeared to have taken steps to reduce the group’s ability to conduct operations. Iranian media outlets reported that the nation’s armed forces destroyed the Pakistani headquarters of the jihadist group Jaish al-Adl in a series of missile strikes.