Fri 28 October 2022:
Iranian security forces have opened fired on protesters in Zahedan a month after a massacre that killed scores of people in the restive south-eastern city.
Crowds were also fired on in Mahabad, another city with a long history of resistance against the regime, in renewed deadly violence at the end of the sixth week of unrest sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on 16 September.
Gunfire erupted and smoke rose from the desert city of some 500,000 people, which lies on the Pakistan border. Video footage showed scenes of panic, with blood splattered on tiled floors.
Witnesses in videos said regime gunmen had opened fire directly on unarmed protesters emerging from Friday prayers.
Shir-Ahmed Shirani, editor of the ethnic Baluch human rights website Halvash, told The Independent that the seven dead included two children, and that 50 other people had been injured but had been barred by security forces from entering hospitals. Mr Shirani said the number of dead was sure to rise.
“As soon as the worshippers left the mosque, the gunmen opened fire,” he said in a phone interview.
1/People of Zahedan, in Balochistan province, were shot directly with live ammunition during Friday prayers by the security forces of the Islamic Republic.
People of Iran will not forgive, nor forget this massacre.#IranRevulotion #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/t5mJjcBvSA— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 28, 2022
There were reports of as many as six killed in Zahedan on Friday, including a 12-year-old boy. In a desperate attempt calm local anger, at midnight on Thursday the provincial authorities had suddenly sacked the chief of Zahedan police and a second senior officer due to “deficiencies” in their handling of protests in the city on 30 September.
At least 6 protesters got shot and killed by Iranian regime Forces and 40 injured in today’s protests in #Zahedan #MahsaAmini #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/vWjdBpR6ME
— Afshin Ismaeli (@Afshin_Ismaeli) October 28, 2022
Children’s murder is a crime against humanity. However, the Islamic regime commits it every day and today in Zahedan.
A 12-years-old boy murdered by the hated regime in #Zahedan.#مهسا_امینی#زاهدان#MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/8stuXCa1Gg
— HezarDastaan (@hezar_dastann) October 28, 2022
در حکومت اسلامی مردم بلوچ در جواب گلولههای حکومت «الله اکبر» میگویند
اینترنت در سراوان قطع شده و از تعداد کشتهها و زخمیها آماری در دست نیست#سراوان #زاهدان#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/VZlmbAv7Fk
— Sima Sabet | سیما ثابت (@Sima_Sabet) October 28, 2022
“The regime’s mercenaries are firing directly at us! Death to Khamenei!”
Zahedan #MahsaAmini #IranRevolution #مهسا_امینی #زن_زندگی_آزادی j pic.twitter.com/5y8xVhzkMq
— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) October 28, 2022
In a highly unusual admission of fault on the part of Iran’s security apparatus, the provincial authorities admitted that police had been responsible for the death of as many as 35 people on 30 September, including some innocent people leaving prayers.
Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, one of Iran’s poorest, and the provincial security council promised to provide compensation to the injured and their families. The 30 September protest had been called in response to the reported rape of a teenage girl by a police commander, and some rights groups have put the death toll on the day – which has come to be known as Bloody Friday among Iranians – at above 90.
The midnight admission had clearly been intended to avert trouble at Friday prayers after repeated accusations by Maulvi Abdul Hamid, a leading Sunni cleric based in Zahedan, that the supreme leader of the majority Shia country – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – had failed to punish the security forces for the killings.
Tribal elders had gathered on Thursday night at the mosque at which the cleric speaks to show their support for him, after he came under attack from clerics loyal to the government.
Die Belutschen sind im Widerstand. Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar Naqshbandi, bekannter Imam, hat bekanntgegeben, dass jeder (sunnitische) Geistliche, der noch zu Regierungstreffen bereit ist, die Bevölkerung von Zahedan (Massaker am 30.9.) verrät. #IranProtests2022 #IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/pMRV1QQJTk
— Shoura Hashemi (@ShouraHashemi) October 27, 2022
IRAN’S GUARDS WARN SUNNI CLERIC MOLAVI ABDOLHAMID OVER ‘AGITATING’ IN RESTIVE SOUTHEAST
Fearing trouble, the security services sent reinforcements to the city before Friday, but huge crowds attended prayers at the Makki mosque and dozens then took to the streets, according to activists.
The scale of the subsequent violence is disputed by official news agencies, who blamed “rioters” for the unrest. Zahedan is one of the few Sunni-majority cities in predominantly Shia Iran, and there will be concern in Iran and beyond if ethnic and religious tensions come to the surface alongside the calls for greater women’s rights.
Videos widely shared online showed people rallying on Friday across Iran, including in Mahabad, the flashpoint western city where a rights group said security forces had killed at least four people in the past two days.
The Norway-based Hengaw organisation, which reports on human rights violations in Iranian Kurdistan, said that two more people were killed on Thursday in Baneh, another city near Iran’s western border with Iraq.
And Amnesty International said late on Thursday that “unlawful killings” by the security forces had claimed least eight lives in four provinces within 24 hours.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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