Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was a powerful figure in Iran, described by some commentators as a man more powerful than the president. (Photo: AP)

The late Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani of Iran publicly upbraided Pakistan last year when its citizens were accused of involvement in a blast that killed dozens belonging to his military organisation, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The powerful Maj. Gen. Soleimani led the IRGC's Quds Force, considered by the US to be a terrorist group, and was killed with several others on January 3, 2020, in a US airstrike that immediately ratcheted up tensions in the region. US citizens have now been asked to leave Iraq, where the strike was conducted.

Soleimani's comments on Pakistan followed a suicide bombing that killed 27 members of the IRGC on February 13, 2019. The attack was claimed by Jaish al-Adl -- a Sunni terrorist group based in southern Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province and in Pakistan, according to AFP.

"We have always offered Pakistan help in the region, but I have this question from the Pakistani government: where are you heading to?" Soleimani asked at an event on February 21, 2019, according to Iran's FARS news agency.

"You have caused unrest along borders with all your neighbors, and do you have any other neighbor left that you want to stir insecurity for?"

"Are you [Pakistan], 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?" - Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani on February 21, 2019 (FARS news agency)

"I warn you not to test Iran and anyone who has tested Iran has received firm response," Maj. Gen. Soleimani said.

Pakistan denied Iran's charges that it was sheltering Jaish al-Adl.

'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!'

At the same time, Islamabad was also denying involvement in the suicide bombing that killed 40 paramilitary soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14, 2019, claimed by Jaish-e-Mohammed.

On February 17, Sushma Swaraj, then India's External Affairs Minister, met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Aragchchi, who decried the "heinous" attacks both countries had suffered.

"Enough is enough!" Aragchchi tweeted.

Few Indians will need reminding of what happened in the following days: India soon sent warplanes across the LoC for the first time in decades to pound a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Balakot, in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Pakistan soon initiated an aerial confrontation in which an Indian fighter pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by Pakistan -- after he shot down an PAF F-16 (Pakistan denies that it ever used the American-made jets).

Varthaman was soon released.