Three weeks after the “bloody Friday” riots that claimed dozens of lives, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Zahedan in southeast Iran on Friday, according to videos uploaded online.
The city of Zahedan in the Sistan-Blushistan governorate witnessed several days of violence, which began with demonstrations organized on September 30, after reports that a girl was raped by a policeman.
The Human Rights Organization in Iran estimates that 93 people have been killed as a result of violence.
According to Iranian government-affiliated media, Zahedan’s conflicts were a “terrorist event” against a police station that claimed the lives of five Revolutionary Guardsmen.
A video clip that was widely circulated on Twitter on Friday showed demonstrators who gathered outside a police station chanting “Death to the dictator”, referring to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Another video footage depicting demonstrators assembling after Friday prayers and yelling “Death to Khamenei” and “Unity, Unity” was released by Radio “Varda,” a Persian-language station supported by the United States.
These anti-regime cries were among the most common in Iran during the protests that were started by Misha’s passing more than a month ago. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman passed away on September 16, three days after she was detained in Tehran for breaking the Islamic Republic’s rigorous clothing code for women.
One of Iran’s poorest regions, Sistan Baluchistan is home to the Sunni Baloch minority and is situated in the southeast of the country close to the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Activists and non-governmental groups have long claimed that Tehran’s religious leadership discriminates against this region, where a number of Baluch people are killed in altercations with police enforcement every year or are included in executions.
Hundreds of people demonstrate in Zahedan weeks after “bloody Friday” in Iran.
About Author
