The Baloch Human Rights council has asked the United Nations in an open letter to investigate the ‘massacre’ of innocent Baloch citizens in Zahedan. The rights group asked the UN chief to take notice of the ‘genocide of the Baloch people at the hands of Iran’s hardline theocratic regime.
According to media reports, the Iranian security forces have killed at least 63 people in the “bloody suppression” of the protests in the southeastern city of Zahedan. The clashes erupted after Friday prayers last week in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province which is home to the ethnic Baluch minority who largely adhere to the Sunni sect of Islam, unlike the ruling Shia majority.
The incident took place amid nationwide demonstrations that erupted against Iran’s regime following the death of Mahsa Amini who the morality police had arrested.
But rights groups claim that the protest in Zahedan was sparked by the accusation that a police chief in the port of Chabahar, also in Sistan-Baluchistan, had raped a 15-year-old Baluch girl.
Hundreds took to the streets after Friday prayers to protest against the Chabahar police chief. The demonstrators were met with brute force, leading to the loss of over 60 lives, most of them Baluch.
The BHRC Information Secretary Mir Kamalan Baloch said in a press release that Iran had “occupied” Balochistan in 1928 and set up a colonialist-style government there. The rights group asked the UN chief to take notice of the “systemic genocide of the Baluch community” of Iran at the hands of the “mullah regime. “
The BHRC also wrote to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, asking him to broach the issue of the “massacre” in western Balochistan in the next session of the commission. The rights group asked the UN human rights body to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards as a “terrorist organization” and hold them accountable for their “war crimes” in western Balochistan.
The violent suppression of peaceful Baluch protestors in Iran’s Zahedan has sparked outrage around the Sistan Baluchistan as well. Eminent Sunni cleric Abdul Hameed said that the massacre of innocent people in Zahedan is flagrant contravention of the constitution.
Speaking at length during the Friday sermon, the religious leader said the forces had specifically aimed and fired at the heads of innocent civilians who were offering prayer. He said that the police had deliberately opened live fire on the demonstrators in front of the police station, leading to multiple deaths and injuries.
He claimed that when people were heading back home after offering prayers, security forces stationed on the roofs had opened fire on them, killing many in the process. He called the incident a “great injustice.” Maulana Hameed said that at least 40 people were killed and 100 others were critically wounded in the “massacre.”
The Baloch Peoples Congress also bashed the Iranian regime for its violent crackdown on peaceful, democratic protestors in Zahedan. BPC General-Secretary Siddiq Azad said in a media statement that the Iranian forces had deliberately opened indiscriminate fire on peaceful protestors.
He said that dozens of innocent Baluch civilians, including women and children, had been killed in cold blood.
He said that the demonstrators were unarmed, but the security forces used their full might and military prowess to suppress the protests. He claimed that the Iranian forces, dressed in Baluchi-style clothes, had vandalized shops and public property so that they could later frame innocent demonstrators for rioting.
Siddiq Azad further said that the people injured in the incident are admitted to the civil hospital, but the security forces forced the hospital employees to deny them first aid treatment. He further said that the state-owned media, social media trolls and propaganda sites are spreading disinformation about the protests to misguide the general public and the world. He said the authorities have announced martial law in Zahedan, and the lives of thousands of Baluch people are in danger.
Siddiq Azad said that the Baloch Peoples Congress supports the democratic struggle of the people in western Baluchistan. He also asked the Iranian regime to free the peaceful demonstrators arrested by the security forces.
In another development, the Iranian authorities sealed the border entry point some 90kms from Zahedan on Sunday, freezing the movement of goods and people between east and west Balochistan. Local sources say that the authorities fear that the people injured in Zahedan demonstrations would be moved through the border to eastern Balochistan for treatment.