Ten Baloch oil traders were killed and several others wounded after the Iranian border security forces opened indiscriminate fire on them on the border near Panjgur, Balochistan.
According to the details, the Iranian forces killed 10 Baloch traders in a shootout near Haq Abad, a region bordering Iran in western Balochistan. It is not yet clear why the forces opened fire on the traders.
Viral videos of the incident show a large gathering of the Iranian forces on the border. The forces initially fire few shots at a time, but the shootout almost immediately morphs into a full-scale cannonade.
The incident enraged the locals who then staged a protest near the Iranian border. As a result, the Pakistani as well as the Iranian forces were forced to abandon their posts and flee.
Thousands of Baloch traders earn their livelihood by transporting oil from Iran via the “Iran-Pakistan” border. With widespread unemployment, economic activities being next to nothing, lack of industries and little development in the private sector, hundreds of well-educated Baloch youth resort to the risky oil trade to earn their bread and butter.
The Baloch oil-traders are frequently harassed both by the Pakistani as well as the Iranian border security forces. They are reportedly forced to pay stupendous fines – sometimes almost 20% of their earnings – to the Pakistani security forces to get a passageway through the border. Even then their miseries are not over, their vehicles loaded with tens of oil barrels are confiscated and returned for a crushing ransom.