ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has condemned an attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran on Wednesday which killed 15 people, escalating tensions in a country reeling from a wave of protests.
Tehran said it had arrested a gunman who carried out the attack at the Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz. State media blamed “takfiri terrorists” — a label Iran uses for hardline Sunni militants like Islamic State.
The militant group Islamic State has claimed previous attacks in Iran, including deadly twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
In a statement on Thursday, the Foreign Office said the government and people of Pakistan were deeply saddened at the precious loss of lives and injuries sustained in the dastardly terrorist attack.
The people of Pakistan stand in solidarity with their Iran counterparts in this hour of grief and express profound sympathies to the families of the deceased, and pray for the swift recovery of those injured, the statement said.
Pakistan strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, it added.
Wednesday’s killing of Shi’ite pilgrims came on the same day that Iran’s security forces clashed with increasingly strident protesters marking the 40-day anniversary since the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman.
Minister for Interior Ahmad Vahidi blamed the protests sweeping Iran for paving the ground for the Shiraz attack, and President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran would respond, according to state media.
