At least 19 dead, including a head of the Revolutionary Guard, during riots in the Iranian city of Zahedan

Oct. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least 19 people have died and twenty have been injured, this past Friday, including a commander of the Revolutionary Guard, during the police repression against a wave of protests that has broken out in recent hours in the Iranian city of Zahedan, majority Sunni, located in the east of the country.

The Government, through the official Iranian news agency IRNA, has defended the police action, arguing that the demonstrators tried to assault three police stations in the city. The deaths have been confirmed by the provincial Governor, Modares Jayabani, in a press conference collected by the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim, who has identified the rioters as “terrorists” and “separatists”.

The protests have cost the life of the head of Intelligence of the Revolutionary Guard in the province of Sistan and Balochistan, of which Zahedan is the capital, identified as Ali Musavi, as confirmed by Tasnim, also related to the ideological wing of the Iranian Army.

Musavi would have died during the assault carried out by “a group of elements opposed to the regime” near the Makki mosque, where they began to open fire indiscriminately, always according to the version of the authorities.

Maulvi Abdul Hamid, the religious leader of the mainly Sunni Baloch population living in the province and Iran’s top Sunni cleric, has called on law enforcement to do everything possible to keep the town calm.

The protests in the country have been unleashed since the death in police custody of the young Mahsa Amini and even the incidents in Zahedan had left between 52 and 83 dead, according to sources from Amnesty International and the Iranian NGO Iran Human Rights.

In recent hours, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry has also issued a statement reporting the arrest of at least nine foreign citizens, from Germany, Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Sweden for their alleged participation in riots in the which has held foreign powers responsible.

Tehran has also announced the arrest of 49 members of the opposition People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), banned by Tehran, for inciting terrorism and vandalism through the fabrication of fake news.

Likewise, it has specified that 77 agents of Kurdish dissident groups (Komala, KDPI, PAK and PJAK), including one of their senior commanders “trained in US bases”, have been arrested for conspiring “against the oppressed people of Kurdistan on both sides of the the western borders of the country.

In addition to these arrests are three other members of the Baha’i community, considered a heresy by the Iranian Muslim authorities, as well as 92 supporters of the former Pahlavi monarchy and five Takfiri “terrorists” who were carrying 36 kilograms of explosives.