On Monday, four members of the Revolutionary Guard security forces died in a “terrorist” attack in southeastern Iran, in the province of Sistan-Balochistan, located near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This region, affected by episodes of violence in recent months, is one of the poorest in Iran and is home to the Baloch minority, which mainly adheres to Sunni Islam and not to the dominant Shiism in the country. Faced with the “powerful presence” of the security forces, the attackers “fleed to Pakistan”, added the official Irna news agency, without giving more information on these attackers. The head of the Saravan border guards, Hosseinali Farahi, quoted Sunday evening by Irna, reported a conflict between his forces and “armed aggressors who are members of a terrorist group”.
Strong internal tensions
On December 14, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence reported the arrest of three individuals involved in the alleged assassination of a Sunni imam, killed on December 8 in Sistan-Baluchistan. Zahedan, the capital of the province, was affected by several days of violence sparked on September 30 during demonstrations against the rape of a teenager attributed to a police officer.
The violence erupted as the country has been plagued by protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, three days after her arrest in Tehran by vice police.