Iranian Revolutionary Guards | Photo Credit: AP

Tehran: While the Indo-Pak border tensions appeared to have subsided for now with the release of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, the South Asian country is now facing increased pressure from its western neighbour, Iran. The Iranian leadership has put Pakistan on notice for harbouring terrorists after terror outfit Jaish ul-Adl carried out a deadly attack on an IRGC convoy in which 27 personnel were killed and 13 others were injured.

Jaish ul-Adl is a Pakistan-based terrorist group like the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba and had claimed responsibility for the IRGC convoy attack. The terror attack that took place in the middle of February had targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is an arm of the Iranian armed forces.

The top military leadership in Tehran has taken a very strong view on the attack and promised "revenge".

As per a report in ANI, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, has blamed Pakistan’s intelligence agency for sheltering Takfiri groups, including Jaish ul-Adl.

"We believe this silence is kind of support for this grouplet and the Pakistani intelligence organization should account for it," Major General Jafari said, reported the Far News Agency.

"Pakistan should also know that it should pay the cost for the Pakistani intelligence organisation's support for Jeish al-Zolm (as Jaish ul-Adl is known in Iran) from now on and this price will no doubt be very heavy for them," he warned.

The Major General indicted the Pakistani security agencies by saying the "know the hideout of the grouplets but have kept mum."

"The recent crime has caused the IRGC and other Armed Forces to boost determination to continue the path of martyrs and confront threats and they will protect the security of the country's borders with more strength and power and will take revenge of the blood of our oppressed martyrs," Jafari said further.

The Iranian military general warned Pakistan that Tehran would not shy away from a "confrontation" if the latter failed to fulfil its obligations as regards fighting terror was concerned.

"If Pakistan does not comply with its responsibilities, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right of confrontation against these peripheral threats at the borders with the neighbouring country, based on international law and rules, and will adopt compensatory measures to punish the terrorists who are mercenaries of the regional and trans-regional states' spy agencies," he cautioned.

Far News Agency also quoted the Commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, as saying that Islamabad must curb cross-border attacks by terrorists based out of its soil.

"We have always offered Pakistan help in the region, but I have this question from the Pakistani government: where are you heading to? You have caused unrest along borders with all your neighbours and do you have any other neighbour left that you want to stir insecurity for," General Soleimani said following the deadly February 13 suicide attack.

Referring to the Pakistani government, he further said: "Are you, who have atomic bombs, unable to destroy a terrorist group with several hundred members in the region? How many of your own people have been killed in different terrorist operations? We do not want your condolences, how could your condolence help the people of Iran?"

"I ask the Pakistani government what has been left for Pakistan?" he went on to add.

Naming Pakistan’s notorious ISI spy agency, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military aide to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, said, “The ISI should account to the Iranian government and nation and the IRGC for (the question) how they (terrorists) have crossed the borders of that country and why this neighbouring country has turned into a safe haven and a place for the training and dispatch of these infidel terrorist grouplets (to Iran)."