Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province: Fire Under the Ashes

Living in one of Iran’s least economically developed provinces, the people of Sistan and Baluchistan province suffer not only from unemployment and poverty but also from a lack of access to things as basic as drinking water. As elsewhere in Iran, public anger against the government frequently turns violent and often involves firearms due to the constant smuggling of weapons into Iran from the porous Afghan border. Javan Newspaper, a mouthpiece of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, recently accused local Sunni religious leaders of inciting the public against the regime. In doing so, Javan neglected the fire under the ashes constantly nurtured by economic underdevelopment.

• July 24: Centrist Iranian Students’ News Agency reported on the funeral services for four members of the Law Enforcement Forces killed in a “terrorist attack” in the Khash-Taftan area.
• July 24: According to IUS News, Sunni militant group Jaish ul-Adl, or the Army of Justice, which the news agency nicknamed Jaish al-Zolm, or the Army of Injustice, was behind the attack against the Law Enforcement Forces.
• July 24: Javan Newspaper accused Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, a Sunni cleric and the imam of the Makki Mosque in Zahedan, of inspiring recent killings of security personnel in Sistan and Baluchistan province: “In the course of the opposition’s cowardly terrorist attack, four honorable members of the police in the Khash-Taftan region reached the elevated dignity of martyrdom yesterday.” The article added that 15 security personnel have been killed in the Sistan and Baluchistan region since March 21. Explaining “the roots of terrorism,” the article argued: “The footprint of the proponents of violence leads to certain tribunes … In the course of last year’s sedition, Molavi Abdolhamid, the Friday prayer imam of the Makki Mosque in Zahedan, used the pretext of a sexual assault against a citizen, the circumstances of which had not yet been clarified, to radicalize the atmosphere in Zahedan city and in the province in its entirety. It was in that atmosphere that his hysterical audience attacked the 16th Police Station of Zahedan, which led to bitter and bloody incidents. These bitter incidents did not make Abdolhamid change course, and he has since used his Friday prayer sermon to propagate violence. Instead of being grateful for the nobility of the regime, he interprets the regime’s restraint as weakness.” Javan’s article concluded: “Molavi Abdolhamid must know that the time for issuing vague and indirectly accusatory statements is over and that he must clarify his position concerning the small terrorist groups that are targeting the security and calm of the people of Sistan and Baluchistan.”

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