Oct 09 2023

Following the circulation of a video on social media depicting a state law enforcement officer torturing a Baluch civilian with an electric shock inside Zahedan’s District 13 police station, outrage and anger made itself visible on Iranian social media with many users calling for retribution against the oppressive State Security Forces.

In less than 24 hours, the armed forces’ judiciary reported the “arrest” of a “misbehaving soldier” and other officers and individuals associated with this police station situated in Zahedan’s Shirabad district.

The official IRNA news agency released a video demonstrating the provincial police chief meeting with the harassed citizen and asking for understanding.

Meanwhile, local activists in Sistan and Baluchestan Province rejected the provincial police commander’s statement regarding the removal of the “Shirabad police chief” and said that the head of this police station had already been replaced a few days before the aforementioned incident.

The armed forces’ judiciary emphasized in its statement that it “assures the public that the military court and the Judiciary, in line with respecting citizens’ rights, will take decisive and timely action against any transgressions by a few individuals that tarnish the position of the armed forces.”

The video emerged a few days after the “Bloody Friday anniversary in Zahedan” where various parts of Zahedan and several other cities in Sistan and Baluchestan province saw public demonstrations, clashes, and nightly skirmishes with security forces despite a high-security environment and the extensive presence of dispatched forces from other provinces.

The deprived people of Sistan and Baluchestan Province have long been victims of systemic negligence, discrimination, and excessive suppression by the clerical dictatorship. Hence, the populace has a strong inclination toward staunch resistance.

In March 2021, following the massacre of fuel porters by the IRGC border regiment, thousands of protesters in Saravan stormed security and government centers and burned police vehicles. The uprising spread to other cities and sparked protests in other Iranian cities that supported their southeastern fellow countrymen and women.

After a few days and wary of the ignition of an armed struggle toward other parts of the country, the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sent a high-ranking delegation to the province, trying to reason with the tribal leaders and appease them into comfort.

On September 30, 2022, following the Friday prayer sermon in Zahedan, while some of the residents were planning to hold a gathering to protest the assault by Ebrahim Kuchaki, the Chabahar police chief who had raped a 15-year-old girl, security forces positioned themselves inside one of Zahedan’s police stations and fired directly into the crowd.

Around a hundred people, including children and teenagers, were killed as a result of the shooting by the state security forces and the incident was named “Bloody Friday in Zahedan.”

Subsequently, with ongoing protests by Zahedan residents, the Sistan and Baluchestan Provisional Security Council, issued an announcement, acknowledging the “shortcomings of some officers” and reported the “dismissal of the head of the 16th district police station and the police commander of Zahedan city.”

However, even after a year has passed since the bloody Friday in Zahedan, and despite nationwide calls for holding the perpetrators to account, the regime’s judicial system refused to undertake anything regarding the massacre in Zahedan.

Following the conciliatory gesture of the regime’s SSF today, many state officials, particularly those who used to brand themselves as “reformists” hailed the deceitful move and suggested that the apologetic approach should become standard.

Nevertheless, as the regime’s history is guided, the recent peacemaking theatrics only convey two messages: 1) unlike to what the regime’s apologists claim, the terrorist regime has not changed its methods, and 2) unlike what Khamenei and IRGC commanders claim, the regime is weaker than ever before and its security forces are terrified of a resolute response from the people.

Source » ncr-iran

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