At least 82 Baluch protesters and bystanders killed in bloody crackdown: Amnesty International

Iranian security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people, including children, and injured hundreds of others after firing live ammunition, metal pellets and teargas at protesters, bystanders and worshippers during a violent crackdown after Friday prayers on 30 September in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, Amnesty International said today. Since then, another 16 people were killed in separate incidents in Zahedan amid an ongoing clampdown on protests. Evidence gathered from activists, victims’ families, eyewitness testimonies, and images and videos of the protests suggest the real death toll from Zahedan is likely to be higher.

Widely referred to by Iranians as “bloody Friday”, the onslaught on 30 September marked the deadliest day on record since protests started spreading across Iran nearly three weeks ago, after Mahsa Amini died in custody following her arrest by Iran’s “morality” police.

BLA Says Ready For Prisoner Swap Talks With Pakistan Army

Baloch “pro-independence” group BLA on Wednesday has said it’s ready to engage in prisoner swap with Pakistani military.

According to a statement released to the media by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), that the group is ready to swap prisoners with Pakistan army. The statement read that the Senior Command Council of BLA has approved that in abidance with international conventions and established norms of the war, a process of prisoner swap can be initiated with Pakistani military.

As per reports, earlier on 25th September 2022, BLA’s special force Special Tactical Operations Squad (STOS) reportedly carried out an intelligence-based operation near Zardalo in Harnai. In the said operation an official of Pakistan’s military intelligence and a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of Pakistani military were apprehended by the group.

After US and Canada, France Says EU To Impose Sanctions On Iranian Officials

France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said Tuesday that the European Union was looking to impose sanctions on several Iranian officials involved in the crackdown on protesters.

“France’s action at heart of EU … (is) to target those responsible for the crackdown by holding them responsible for their acts,” Catherine Colonna told lawmakers in parliament, adding that the EU was looking at asset freezes and travel bans.

The bloc last agreed human rights sanctions on Tehran in 2021. No Iranians had been added to that list since 2013, however, as the bloc has shied away such measures in the hope of reviving a nuclear accord with Iran after the United States withdrew in 2018. Those talks have now stalled.

CTD Kills Two Baloch Enforced Disappeared Persons In Fake Encounter

Pakistani police’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed to have killed four suspected persons during an encounter in Nautal area of Nasirabad in Balochistan on Sunday, 2 October 2022.

The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), however, rejected the CTD’s claim and said that two persons killed in Nasirabad were already in the custody of Pakistani forces. 

According to VBMP, the family identified two of the four persons identified as brothers Akbar and Jaisif sons of Nawab. They were forcibly disappeared from the Dera Murad Jamali region of Balochistan on 24 July 2022.

BHRC asked UN to investigate the massacre of Baloch in Western Balochistan

Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) demanded an investigation by the United Nations into the massacre of the peaceful protesters in Zahedan (Duzzap) on September 30, 2022.

In a letter addressed to António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, BHRC executive president Dr Naseer Dashti urged the organization to take the cognizance of systematic killings of the Baloch political, social and human rights activists by the fascist regime of Ayatollahs in Iran.

Oct 5: Martyrs of Kunri, Kolwa

Iran Sealed The Goldsmid Line After Violent Protests in Zahedan

Iranian authorities have sealed a key crossing point with eastern Balochistan due to unrest in Zahedan and crackdown on protesters.

According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the border crossing at Taftan, about 90 km from Zahedan, has been sealed by the Iranian authorities and no one is being allowed to go from Pakistan to Iran, while on the other side, all types of movement have been stopped.

A Levies Force officer told that the Iranian authorities late Friday night verbally informed the local administration about closure of the border, but no time frame was given in this regard.

People were killed by sniper shooters: Maulvi Abdul Hameed

DUZZAP: A well-known Baloch religious scholar from Iranian Occupied Balochistan, Maulvi Abdul Hameed, has issued a message regarding the incident that happened in Zahedan after Friday prayers on September 30, and termed the incident as a tragedy and called for legal action against those who killed people.

“The bullets have been fired into the heads and hearts of most of the worshipers, and it is clear that it was the work of snipers,” said the Friday prayer Imam.

Explaining the Zahedan massacre, Maulvi Abdul Hameed said: “A few minutes after the Friday prayer, gunshots were heard. Later it was found that some youths gathered in front of the nearby police station after offering prayers and shouting slogans and some of them pelted stones at the police station”.

Black Friday in Zahedan: Dozens of Dead, Hundreds of Injured

Zahedan, in Sistan and Baluchistan province, suffered a bloody Friday on September 30. For several days, the province has been the scene of protests over the rape of a 15-year-old girl by a police chief in Chabahar.

Despite widespread protests, Iranian government officials have resisted yielding to any of the protesters’ demands. On the contrary, it is clear from the videos published on social networks that on September 30, when people gathered for Friday prayers in Zahedan mosque and demanded the punishment of the offender, they were targeted by the full might of the security and military forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The videos show local people gathering in front of the police station, where their protest was met by security forces shooting at them from inside the station house and from a circling helicopter.

Testing times

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

IT is said that ‘common sense’ is not as common as it ought to be. Had it been so the world would not have suffered the way it has. Even today a world that has seen so much death and destruction has not yet learned to live in peace.

The global arms industry and war machines continue with arms proliferation and war mongering, refusing to use that ‘uncommon sense’ because for them wars are highly profitable.