Image source, AFP

Former Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar says that Iran’s actions on Tuesday were "irrational, illegal and escalatory".

She says the Iranian strikes took place in the context of "a stable relationship with a neighbour that [Iran] shares a 900km [559 miles] border with."

Khar wrote on X that the region could not afford another escalation.

"Pakistan’s action today shows that it will never choose to escalate but has both the will and the capacity to respond to external threats and any attack on its sovereignty."

A former UK ambassador to Iran has told the BBC that there are domestic reasons for Iran's attacks on Pakistan, as well as the Pakistani response.

Robert Macaire said that while the cross-border attacks are very serious, people should "take a step back" - given this is not the two countries explicitly attacking each other.

The mutual strikes were directed at militant groups operating from each other's territories, he told Radio 4's Today programme, adding that there have been issues over the border between Iran and Pakistan for years.

Macaire described the Balochistan region - which is divided between the two nations - as a "lawless" area, with major drug-smuggling gangs responsible for thousands of killings operating there.

He cautioned that while the two countries have a "complicated relationship", they have always "got along and managed that relationship perfectly well".

"On the Pakistani side, with these strikes having been fired into their territory, I can see it would be quite difficult domestically not to be seen to respond in some way."

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

It’s never a good sign when two countries exchange blows like this, particularly two large, influential countries like Iran and Pakistan.

But despite the wreckage, the civilian casualties and some of the heated rhetoric, this still doesn’t feel like a real crisis.

Iran and Pakistan have complicated but cordial relations.

Their ministers met at Davos this week and their navies conducted joint exercises in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.

The two countries have similar concerns about the lawless border area, where drug smugglers and militant Baloch groups are very active.

After both sets of air strikes, each side seemed anxious to emphasise that these did not represent attacks on a brotherly neighbour.

After Tuesday’s Iranian action, Pakistan expressed considerable public outrage and spoke of “serious consequences.”

This morning, Iran summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires, according to its foreign ministry spokesman, “to protest and request an explanation.”

But the attack went largely unreported on Iranian tv and Tehran’s reaction seems relatively muted.

The authorities pointed out that the victims, who included women and children, were not Iranian nationals.

Iran probably knew that Pakistan would feel compelled to respond. Each side has satisfied its honour and, perhaps, met the demands of public opinion.

Image source, Getty Images

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Iran and Pakistan do not want to escalate further tensions.

He says he has spoken to his counterparts from both countries and that both sides are committed to restraint.

"I spoke to the foreign ministers of both countries this morning. They explained to me the justifications of their actions," Fidan said at a press conference in Jordan.

"Both sides told me they have [the situation] under control."

An expert says Pakistan's strikes into Iran raises the risk of escalation, but "also provides an opportunity to step back from the brink".

"In effect, the two sides are even now," Michael Kugelman, South Asia director at the Wilson Center, tells the BBC.

Kugelman says the Pakistani government had a "strong incentive to try to restore deterrence" to Tehran, especially in the context of a more aggressive Iran "around the wider region deploying direct strikes and proxies to hit out at threats and rivals".

"In effect, if Pakistan had held back, it would have faced the risk of additional strikes," Kugelman says.

Image source, EPA

Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist, says he does not believe Iran’s strikes on Pakistan on Tuesday were an outcome of Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel.

"The story here is about Iran flexing its muscles, perhaps outraged by what it saw as a grievous assault on its country in Kerman. Iran is wounded and is lashing out,” Joshi told the BBC's Today programme.

Joshi adds that this is "not the first time there have been border tensions [between Iran and Pakistan], but it is by far and away the most serious escalation in tensions that I can remember".

Carrie Davies
Pakistan correspondent

Pakistan has been careful with its language, talking about targeting militants not Iran itself.

Despite mirroring the language Iran used yesterday to justify why they have carried out these strikes, they haven’t said this is in retaliation.

Instead the Foreign ministry spokesperson has said that the strikes were launched because they had intelligence of an “impending large scale terrorist activities against Pakistan”.

That suggests that despite the strikes, Pakistan are trying not to inflame the situation even further.

The Pakistani army said it remains "in a perpetual state of readiness" after it carried out retaliatory strikes into Iran.

In a statement, the army said its strikes against “hideouts inside Iran used by terrorists" were “effective”.

The statement said they were targeting "terrorist organisations", namely the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front.

It added that the army’s resolve to "ensure that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan against any misadventure, remains unwavering.”

"Going forward, dialogue and cooperation is deemed prudent in resolving bilateral issues between the two neighbouring brotherly countries," the statement said.

Pakistan has launched retaliatory missile strikes into Iran early on Thursday, two days after Iranian attacks on Pakistani soil.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said a number of people were killed in Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Here is what we know so far:

• Nine people were killed as a result of the strikes, according to Iranian state media

• Pakistan said its strikes had hit "terrorist hideouts" in Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province
• Pakistan said it had acted in light of "credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities" and said a number of "terrorists" were killed
• It added that it "fully respects" Iran's "sovereignty and territorial integrity" but its action on Thursday was "a manifestation of Pakistan's unflinching resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats"
• Pakistan had fiercely condemned Iran's strike on Tuesday, which struck an area of Pakistan's Balochistan province near the Iranian border
• Iran insisted its strikes were aimed only at Jaish al-Adl, an ethnic Baloch Sunni Muslim group that has carried out attacks inside Iran, and not Pakistan's citizens

Image source, .

Aoife Walsh
Live reporter

Hello and welcome to our coverage as at least nine people have been killed after Pakistan launched retaliatory missile strikes into Iran.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said its strikes hit "terrorist hideouts" in Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province.

It added that it acted in light of "credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities" and said a number of "terrorists" were killed.

The attack follows Iran's strikes in Pakistan late on Tuesday, which hit an area of Pakistan's Balochistan province near the Iranian border.

We'll be bringing you live updates and analysis here, so stay with us.