'Pakistan reserves right to respond', Islamabad warns Tehran after attack

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani Wednesday told his Iranian counterpart that Pakistan reserved the right to respond to Tehran's "provocative act" of launching an air strike on Islamabad's soil.

Jilani, during a telephone call hours after Tehran claimed it had targeted "terrorist" in Pakistan, told Iran's FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian: "No country in the region should tread this perilous path."

The attack killed two children and injured three girls on the Pakistani side.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, in a press briefing in Islamabad earlier in the day, said Pakistan had expelled Iran’s ambassador and called back its envoy in Tehran.

She also revealed that Islamabad has decided to suspend all high-level visits that were ongoing or were planned between Pakistan and Iran in the coming days.

Meanwhile, during the phone call, FM Jilani firmly underscored that the attack conducted by Iran inside Pakistani territory was not only a serious breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty but was also an egregious violation of international law and the spirit of bilateral relations.

Expressing Pakistan's unreserved condemnation of the attack, he added that the incident has caused serious damage to bilateral ties between Pakistan and Iran.

The foreign minister added that Pakistan reserved the "right to respond to this provocative act".

Stressing that terrorism was a common threat to the region and required concerted and coordinated efforts to combat this menace, FM Jilani underlined that unilateral actions could seriously undermine regional peace and stability.

Tehran targeted the bases of, what it claimed was a terrorist organisation inside Pakistani territory, "Green Mountain" with drones and missiles, and destroyed the headquarters of the said terrorist group, reported Iranian state media.