Iran-Pakistan Security Committee to resume work

Iran-Pakistan Security Committee will resume its activities to take border security measures, an Iranian official says.

“The Iran-Pakistan Security Committee will resume its activities after three years and security of border areas will increase,” Ali Abdollahi, the Iranian deputy interior minister for security and law enforcement, said on Saturday.

The Iranian official said Iran and Pakistan discussed border issues as well as the fight against drug trafficking, terrorism and illegal border crossings in a recent visit by Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli to Pakistan.

The two sides also agreed to activate their security committees to follow up on the bilateral issues within the framework of their security agreement, Abdollahi added.

In February 2013, Iran and Pakistan signed a security agreement under which both countries are required to cooperate in preventing and combating organized crime, fighting terrorism and countering the activities that pose a threat to the national security of either country.

The two neighbors have decided to boost security and anti-terrorism cooperation following the kidnapping of five Iranian border guards in Jakigour region in the southeastern Iranian Sistan and Baluchestan Province in February. The abducted guards were taken to Pakistani territory. Four of them were released in April but the fate of the fifth one remains unknown.