AI estimates at least ten deaths from new protests in southeastern Iran

Nov. 4 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Amnesty International (AI) fears that at least ten people, including children, have died this Friday in Iran after security forces opened fire on a group of protesters in Sistan and Balochistan province.

“Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the new bloodshed following the Internet shutdown and reports that more Zahedan security forces have been sent to Khash,” he explained in the official profile of his account in the country.

According to images and eyewitness accounts received from Khash provinces in Sistan and Baluchistan, since 2 p.m. (local time), security forces have been firing ammunition at “peaceful protesters” from the rooftops of the governor’s office and other buildings, said AI, which has published a video of the events.

Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan, is one of the epicenters of the protests against the Iranian authorities that broke out almost two months ago due to the death in custody of the young Mahsa Amini, who was initially arrested for wearing the wrong veil. .

The Shia cleric and imam Sayad Shahraki of the Mulay Motaqian mosque was killed this Friday by the shots fired by a group of armed men in the city of Zahedan, in the east of the country, as confirmed by the police chief of the province. , Sardar Ahmad Taheri, who explained that he was assaulted by a group of men who were in a vehicle.

Shahraki, one of the main representatives of the Shiite community in a predominantly Sunni and Baloch city, was shot in the head and chest. His attackers fled and the medical services could do nothing to save the life of the religious, according to the police chief in statements collected by the Iranian reformist news portal Entejab.

Zahedan was the scene of a violent crackdown on September 30 in which security forces killed 92 people, including 12 children, according to civil organizations. The protests in the city first began with the rape in June of a Baloch girl at the hands of a police official and later fed back with the death of Amini on September 16.

Four members of the security forces were also killed on September 30, known as Zahedan’s Black Friday, which led to the immediate dismissal of their security officers for excessive force against protesters.