Eight Pakistani citizens were brutally killed in the Iranian province in southeast Sistan-Baluchetan, Iranian and Pakistani officials said on Saturday, in what was described as an act of shocking violence near the shared border of the two countries.
The victims, all from the Bahawalpur district, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, worked in an automotive workshop in the distant village of Hazerabad in the Mehrestan district, where they carried out work of painting, polishing and repair of vehicles.
Among the deceased, there were Dilshad, his son Naeem and other people identified as Jafar, Danish and Nasir.
According to local sources, the victims were found with their hands and their feet equally and had been slaughtered at close range.
The attack would have taken place during the night, when unidentified attackers stormed the workshop and opened fire without discrimination, killing the eight men on the spot.
Iranian security forces have completed the area and recovered the bodies. The authorities have launched an investigation, but no arrest has been carried out and the authors remain unidentified.
No group has claimed the responsibility of the attack so far. However, preliminary reports suggest the involvement of an anti-Pakistani militant organization operating in the border region.
The Pakistani Embassy in Tehran confirmed that its representatives had reached the site to help identify the bodies and collect new information.
“We are in continuous contact with the Iranian authorities,” a spokesperson for the Pakistani Embassy told Tehran. “All possible measures will be taken to support affected families and guarantee that justice is done.”
Pakistani workers are commonly used in Iranian border regions, in particular in the repair of vehicles and agriculture. However, the latest murders have raised new concerns concerning the security of foreign workers in the country’s reluctance provinces.
This is not the first time that such an incident has been in the region. In January of last year, nine Pakistani nationals were killed by unidentified armed men in Saravan, another city of Sistan-Baluchetan.
According to the Iran news agency in Iran, the attackers entered a residence in the Sirkan district and opened fire, killing nine and injuring three others before fleeing the premises.
The vice-government of the province, Alireza Marhamati, confirmed the details, citing the accounts of survivors of three armed attackers putting the attack.
Pakistan ambassador to Tehran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, expressed a deep shock at the time, qualifying the murders of “horrible” in an article on X (formerly Twitter).
Recurrent violence highlights increasing insecurity in the Iranian eastern regions, where ethnic tensions, smuggling networks and militant activities have contributed to instability and frequent cross -border concerns.
