Balochistan: Iranian forces shot dead over 50 unarmed protesters in Zahedan

DUZZAP: Dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured when Iranian security forces opened indiscriminate firing at unarmed protesters in Zahedan – the capital city of Iranian Occupied Balochistan. Iranian forces used helicopters to disperse crowds and shoot at protesters.

The protests had started as crowds gathered for Friday prayers led by Maulana Abdul Hameed at the Makki Masjid in Zahedan. The protest demonstration was called to protest the rape of a Baloch girl by Ibrahim Kochakzai, the commander of Chabahar’s region security forces.

The Baloch Activists Campaign estimated the number of dead at 58 and the number of wounded at 270, but emphasised that “this number is still increasing in different areas of Zahedan”. Iranian State-affiliated media claimed 19 had been killed and 15 wounded.

An incomplete list of at least 47 names of people killed in the Friday massacre has been released by several Baloch sources:

1. Hamza Naroui son of Mohammad
2. Abdul Rahman Baluchi Khwah son of Shahi
3. Mohammad Amin Gomshadzehi son of Abdul Hamid
4. Mohammad Reza Adib Totazhi son of Seyyed Mohammad
5.  Ahmed Sargolzai
6.  Aminullah Ghaljai
7.  Omran Shahbakhsh son of Abdul Qayyum
8.  Yasir Shahbakhsh son of Taj Mohammad from Zahedan
9.  Iqbal Shahnawazi
10.  Abu Bakr son of Shakoor.
11.  Jalil Mohammadzaei son of Rahman
12.  Hameed Isazaei
13.  Nematullah Kabadani
14.  Hamid Naroui son of Muhammad Ali
15.  Samad Shahouzhi son of Sher Ali
16.  Mohammad Siddiq Naroui son of Sarajuddin
17.  Lal Mohammad Aalizaei son of Zarif
18.  Hamza Noroui           
19.  Abu Bakr Alizaei
20.  Omar Shahnawazi son of Mohammad Sharif
21.  Abdul Ghafoor Noor Brahoi
22.  Hamid Naroui
23.  Farzad Shahbakhsh
24.  Mohammad Ghaljei
25. Muhammad Regi
26. Amir Hamza Shahnawazi
27. Lal Muhammad Anshini
28. Bilal Anshini
29. Salahuddin Gomshadzaei son of Haji Nematollah
30. Abraham Gorgij
31. Ahmad Shahbakhsh
32. Mohammad Iqbal Shahnawazi
33. Muhammad Brahoi
34. Mohammad Farooq Rakhshani
35. Mansour Rakhshani
36. Lal Muhammad Anshini
37. Abdul Malik Shahbakhsh
38. Omar Shahnawazi
39. Ali Akbar Halqa Begosh
40. Younes Naroui
41. Jalil Rakhshani
42. Mohammad Ali Gomshadzehi is 18 years old
43. Rafa Narooi 23-years-old son of Seraj from Duzap (Zahedan)
44. Samer Hashemzehi 16 years old, a resident of Duzap (Zahedan)
45. Ali Aqli (Naroui) son of Ahmad resident of Duzap. He was shot in the heart from behind around 10 pm near Masjid Makki Zahedan.
46. Abdul Majid Regi son of Mehrullah from Duzap
47. Jalil Rakhshani resident of Duzap

Local sources informed BalochWarna News that people started chanting slogans after the Friday Prayer and were demanding punishment of the rapist when Iranian soldiers started shooting at them.  

Some people believe that the Zahedan massacre was pre-planned because the military helicopters appeared within ten minutes of the protest and started shooting.

The protests later spread throughout Zahedan. Several government buildings and security forces vehicles were set alight.

In a video shared on social media, a shooting is heard as people carry the wounded to the hospital.

Sources also reported that the Iranian forces threw tear gas at the women of Ahl al-Sunnah Masjid in Zahedan.

The Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, announced that Ali Mousavi, the intelligence commander of Revolutionary Guards in Balochistan, was also killed.

The circumstances of Mousavi’s killing are not clear as the protesters were unarmed and peaceful and were resisting only with stones and sticks.

Since the murder of a Kurdish activist and the Chabahar incident, the Iranian authorities have tightly restricted the internet and other communication networks to restrict the flow of information about the civil disorder.

The protests, however, continued throughout the night in Zahedan, and on Saturday morning people in several other cities in Balochistan also took to the streets.

There were reports of protests in Iran Shahr and Mirjava whereas Chabahar was already in the grip of protests since the news of the rape of a Baloch girl by the commander of police in Chabahar.

Meanwhile, a statement from Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami has hinted at more blood-shed in Balochistan as he has “vowed that IRGC will take harsh revenge on terrorists after the deadly terrorist attack in Zahedan on Friday.”