Gunmen kill eight Pakistani workers in Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province

Unidentified gunmen killed eight Pakistani nationals in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balochistan province on Saturday, officials said.

Iranian authorities confirmed the attack, saying the victims were laborers from Bahawalpur, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The men had been working at an auto repair workshop in a village in Mehristan district.

According to reports, the attackers stormed the workshop overnight, tied up the workers, and opened indiscriminate fire, killing all eight. The assailants fled the scene before security forces arrived.

Police recovered the bodies and moved them to a nearby hospital. Five of the victims were identified as Dilshad, his son Muhammad Naeem, Jaffar, Danish and Nasir.

A spokesman for the banned Balochistan National Army (BNA) later claimed responsibility for the killings in a statement to local media.

Iranian authorities said police had launched an investigation.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Islamabad condemned the attack, describing it as an “inhumane and cowardly armed incident” against Pakistani nationals.

In a statement, the embassy said terrorism remained a chronic and common threat in the region, carried out by “traitorous elements in collaboration with international terrorism” seeking to destabilize regional security.

“Combating this ominous phenomenon requires collective and joint efforts by all countries to eradicate all forms of terrorism and extremism that have claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people in recent decades,” the embassy said.

It was the second such incident in the province in recent months. In a similar attack last year, nine Pakistani workers were killed in Iran’s restive southeastern border region, amid efforts by Tehran and Islamabad to improve strained ties following cross-border military strikes.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Saturday’s killings, expressing deep sorrow and concern over the loss of Pakistani lives on Iranian soil.

“Terrorism is a menace that affects the entire region,” Shehbaz said in a statement, urging regional governments to implement a coordinated strategy to combat militancy.

He called on Iran to swiftly apprehend those responsible and publicly disclose the motive behind the attack.

PM Shehbaz also directed Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist the victims’ families and instructed the embassy in Tehran to arrange for the repatriation of the bodies.