Balochistan: One executed, two at risk of imminent execution, four arrested

Dozzaap (Zahedan) Iranian authorities have executed a Baloch man, transferred another two to solitary confinement for execution and arrested four other from Chabahar and Zahedan.

According to the Balochistan Observatory, quoting the Baloch Activists Campaign, on January 19, Iranian forces executed Anwar Aalizai (Baloch) son of Rahim in Zahedan central prison.  

The Baloch Activists Campaign quoted a source as saying that “Anwar was arrested in Dozzaap two years ago on charges of smuggling drug.”

The source added: “Anwar was forced to turn to illegal drug transporting due lack of jobs and poor living conditions. He had no previous criminal record.”  

It is pertinent to emphasise that Iran has systematically kept Baloch youth impoverished and in subhuman conditions due which most youths are forced to do fuel smuggling and drug trafficking.

In the last month, about 15 Baluch citizens were executed in Dozzap Central Prison on various charges, which is a multiplication of previous years.

Two transferred to solitary confinement for execution

Two Sunni Baloch clerics were transferred to the quarantine of Dozzaap Central Prison to serve their death sentences on January 16.

The clerics have been named as Amanullah Balochi and Hafez Abdul Rahim Kohi, who were imprisoned in Dozzaap Central Prison.

Their families were contacted by prison officials and asked to go the prison for a final visit with their loves ones.  

Both men were arrested by Iranian security agents in November 2015 and interrogated and charged as a “threat to national security”.

The detainees, however, never admitted the allegations and maintained that they had been tortured to obtain forced confessions.

The Revolutionary Court of Dozzaap sentenced each of these two prisoners to 10 years in prison and execution in September 2017.

Despite the evidence that both men were “graduates of Koh-e-van seminary” and that the Revolutionary Court has no jurisdiction to try the two Sunni clerics, Ali Movahedirad, the general prosecutor of the Dozzaap Revolutionary Court, claimed that the men were not clerics and held no certificate from a religious seminary.  

According to sources the families of both men have been under immense pressure to hand over two relatives of the two prisoners who fled the country in return of their release.

“Many local commanders have even mediated to convey this message to the family,” the source said on conditions of anonymity citing security concerns.

 It should be noted that Iranian officials have repeatedly taken Baluch prisoners hostage and even executed them in Baluchistan in an act of collective punishment for their relatives who fled Iran and are living abroad.

Four more arrested

The Rasanak social media news portal reported on Wednesday, a 23-year-old Baloch citizen named Mahmoud Nabatzehi son of Dadrahim, from the village of Ziarjah (Ziaratjah) in Sarbaz city, was arrested by security forces in the city of Chehbar region of Chabahar city.

Mahmoud is a Sunni religious activist who worked in a customer service office. No information is available on the possible charge against him.

Previously, he had been detained and threatened several times by Iranian security forces.

After his arrest on Wednesday, his family has contacted all security and military organs and security centres, but these officials have expressed ignorance of Mahmoud’s arrest.

It should be noted that the majority of Baloch are arrested and illegally detained by Iran’s security and military forces without any court order.

Meanwhile, another three Baloch have been arrested by Iranian forces in Zahedan, the capital of Iranian occupied Balochistan.

Baloch Activists Campaign reported that on Wednesday, January 13, 2010, three Baloch citizens named Molavi Mohsen Kurdropas, Hafiz Abdul Sattar Shahbakhsh and Ismail Khar Kohi son of Sharif were arrested by Iran’s ministry of information’s Intelligence agents.

The intelligence agents first arrested Hafiz Abdul Sattar and raided the homes of Molavi Mohsen and Ismail, who were not present at the time of the raid.

After Mawlawi Mohsen and Ismail learned of the raid on their home by Ministry of Information’s Intelligence agents and the arrest of Hafez Abdul Sattar, they went to the Ministry to enquire about the raid and arrest of Abdul Sattar.

The intelligence agents detained both of them as well instead of giving a satisfactory answer to their enquiry.  

No further information is available on the reason for the arrest of the three Baloch scholars by Iran’s Ministry of Information’s intelligence wing.

Their families have expressed serious concerns about the security of their relative due to the lack of response from security officials and ignorance about the situation of the three men.  

In recent months, the number of summonses and detentions of Baloch religious scholars and other citizens by Iranian security agents has increased at an unprecedented rate.