Police Station Attack in Iran’s Zahedan Claims 6 Lives, Exacerbates Regional Tensions
In the largely Sunni city of Zahedan, southeastern Iran, a police station raid by armed men and suicide bombers resulted in six fatalities, including two officers and four assailants, state television reported on Saturday. Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, saw some of the most violent protests during last year’s nationwide unrest sparked by the death of a Kurdish woman in custody.
The armed group Jaish al-Adl, or Army of Justice, took responsibility for the assault on social media, declaring it as retribution for the protesters killed by security forces on September 30, 2022. The police station, the group said was “one of the main perpetrators of the Bloody Friday calamity in Zahedan.”
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Amnesty International reported that at least 66 people were killed in the September 30 suppression of protests. Following these events, Zahedan’s police commander and a police station chief were dismissed, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dispatched a delegation to confer with Sunni Baluch clerics.
In a recent public statement, Molavi Abdolhamid, Iran’s leading Sunni cleric, denounced the police station attack and appealed for calm among Baluchistan residents.
