TEHRAN: Gunmen in southeastern Iran near the Pakistan border killed nine foreign nationals Saturday, Iranian media reported, more than a week after the neighbors exchanged deadly cross-border fire.
“According to witnesses, this morning unknown armed men killed nine non-Iranians in a house in the Sirkan neighborhood of Saravan city” in Sistan-Baluchestan province, the Mehr news agency reported.
So far, no group or individuals had claimed responsibility, the agency added.
The deadly attack follows rare military action in the porous border region of Baluchestan — split between the two nations — that had stoked regional tensions already inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.
Sistan-Baluchestan is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran.
It has seen persistent unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baluchi ethnic minority, as well as jihadists.
On January 18, Pakistan launched air strikes on “militant targets” in Iran, two days after Iran had launched strikes on its territory.
Tehran said it had targeted Jaish Al-Adl, a jihadist group which has carried out a spate of deadly attacks in Iran in recent months.
Formed in 2012, the group is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” organization.
The Iranian strikes, which Pakistan said killed at least two children, drew a sharp rebuke from Islamabad, which recalled its ambassador from Tehran and blocked Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.
Tehran also summoned Islamabad’s charge d’affaires over Pakistan’s strikes, which left at least nine people dead.
The two countries, however, announced last Monday that they had decided to de-escalate and resumed diplomatic missions with the two ambassadors returning to their posts.
Gunmen in Iran kill 9 foreigners near Pakistan border — report
https://arab.news/5sp86
Gunmen in Iran kill 9 foreigners near Pakistan border — report
- So far, no group or individuals has claimed responsibility, Iranian news agency reports
- The deadly attack follows rare military action in the porous border region of Baluchestan
Pakistan IT exports rise nearly 20 percent to $2.61 billion in first seven months of fiscal year
- January ICT exports climb to $374 million year-on-year
- Sector remains country’s top-earning services export
KARACHI: Pakistan’s information and communication technology (ICT) export earnings rose 19.78 percent year-on-year to $2.61 billion in the first seven months of the fiscal year ending June 2026, the IT ministry said on Tuesday, highlighting the sector’s growing role as a source of foreign exchange.
Pakistan’s IT and IT-enabled services sector has emerged as one of the country’s fastest-growing sources of foreign exchange, generating over $3 billion annually and employing roughly a million freelancers in addition to formal software firms.
Unlike traditional manufacturing exports, the industry relies primarily on remote digital labor, from software development to back-office services, making it resilient during economic crises but constrained by payment barriers, talent migration and infrastructure reliability challenges. However, IT services require minimal imports and benefit from a large pool of young workers and freelancers, making the sector central to government plans to boost dollar inflows and reduce pressure on the balance of payments.
“ICT export remittances surged 19.78 percent, reaching $ 2.61 billion during the first seven months of FY 2025-26 compared to $ 2.18 billion achieved during the corresponding period last year,” the IT ministry said in a statement.
Monthly exports also expanded, with ICT services exports reaching $374 million in January 2026, up 19.5 percent from $313 million a year earlier, according to the ministry’s data.
The ministry said ICT remained the country’s highest-earning services sector, well ahead of “other business services,” which generated $1.21 billion over the same July-January period.
Pakistan has increasingly relied on technology exports, including software development, outsourcing and freelance services, to generate foreign exchange as the economy adjusts under structural reforms and tight import controls following a balance-of-payments crisis.
Officials say continued growth will depend on easing payment bottlenecks, improving digital infrastructure and expanding higher-value technology services beyond traditional outsourcing.
