Six Iranian border guards were killed Sunday in clashes with an armed group in the town of Saravan in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
Sunday’s attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country” but “fled across the border after the clash,” Fars news agency, the media arm of IRGC, reported.
The deputy police chief and the border guard chief arrived to investigate the incident, added the agency.
Mehr News Agency reported that the police affirmed that there will be a response to this “cowardly act”. Six border guards were killed, and one was critically wounded, the police revealed.
The prosecutor general of the city of Zahedan, the center of Baluchistan, said on Sunday the opposition Baluch group Jaish al-Adl stands behind the attack near the Pakistani border.
The clash comes only a few weeks after the head of the Saravan Intelligence Police and his wife were shot dead while driving his personal car on one of the city’s streets.
The authorities lifted the restrictions in the province last week upon the meeting between Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to inaugurate a border market and an electricity transmission line.
This step aims at reinforcing economic and security cooperation, namely curtailing the threats posed by the armed Baluch groups on both countries.
Iran’s impoverished province of Baluchistan has been hit by protests since September upon the death of Mahsa Amini. The area saw the highest number of casualties during the protests, according to human rights organizations.
Norway-headquartered Iran Human Rights (IHR) revealed that 134 protesters were wounded in various cities in Baluchistan while 21 others face the risk of execution.
Friday prayers and the sermons of the most prominent Sunni figure AbdolHamid Ismail Zahi have focused on the protests in the city. Zahi insisted that those responsible for the shooting be held accountable, namely in the “Bloody Friday” when 90 protesters were killed.
Protests renewed in Zahedan last Friday despite the strict security measures. Zahi criticized the executions, especially in Baluchistan, and called for resolving the border water dispute between Iran and Taliban through dialogue.
Baluchistan province – with a Sunni majority - had the highest number of total executions, exceeding 200 during the first five months of this year.
On May 4, rights organization mentioned that the authority executed 20 Baluch individuals in five days.
At least 174 Baluch prisoners were executed last year, accounting for 30% of all executions in Iran, according to IHR.
The province suffers deprivation on sectarian and ethnic grounds, meanwhile, the authority justifies that the security restrictions seek to combat extremist organizations and the international and local trafficking networks which the Iranian eastern borders are their main outlet to access the drugs coming from Afghanistan.
