His universe was a blind father, a fragile sister, and a niece suspended between hunger and dreams.
In the dusty, marginalized neighborhood of Karimabad in Zahedan, Lal Mohammad Anshini’s life was a testament to resilience and unspoken struggle.
A 37-year-old Baluch laborer, he carried the weight of his family’s survival on his shoulders and navigated a world that denied him even the most basic rights.
Born into poverty and stripped of official Iranian documentation, Lal Mohammad’s life was marked by hardship.
School was a distant dream, replaced by the harsh reality of daily labor. His days were filled with construction work, carrying loads, cleaning homes and gardens, and tending to neighbors’ sheep - all to provide for his blind, elderly father, his sister, and his young niece.
Then came Zahedan’s Bloody Friday.
On September 30, 2022, Lal Mohammad attended prayers at the Makki Mosque in Zahedan, where he was fatally shot by security forces.
A source said that Lal Mohammad was so impoverished he didn’t even own a basic mobile phone. This meant that when his family learned of the security forces shooting at worshippers, they couldn’t contact him.
His lifeless body remained at the Makki Mosque for hours until neighbors found him and brought him home, where they arranged for his burial.
Lal Mohammad was from the village of Chah Ahmad in Khash, and lived in the marginalized neighborhood of Karimabad in Zahedan.
Unable to attend school due to his lack of official documentation, he earned a living through labor to support his family.
A source told IranWire that Lal Mohammad felt a deep sense of responsibility toward his blind, elderly father, his sister, and his niece. He took whatever work was available to ensure his family was provided for. Neighbors often gave him jobs and spoke highly of him.
In a video published by Haalvsh human rights organization, Lal Mohammad is seen working in a building with his colleagues, and when one of them tells him he is hungry and doesn’t want to work until the food arrives, he replies, "May my life sacrificed for you, get up and work."
The source described Lal Mohammad’s family history: his father, once a shepherd in their village, used to graze other people’s sheep. Lal Mohammad’s mother died after battling illnesses worsened by poverty.
Years ago, Lal Mohammad’s sister lost her husband and returned with her young daughter to live with their father. Lal Mohammad treated his niece like his own child, ensuring she never felt the absence of her father.
“It was very important to him that he never came home empty-handed, so his niece wouldn’t feel like she didn’t have a father,” the source said.
Lal Mohammad father's attempts to obtain a birth certificate for himself and his children were blocked by bureaucratic hurdles. Cataracts clouded his father’s vision, but the family could not afford medical treatment.
Every Friday, Lal Mohammad walked from Karimabad to the Makki Mosque to attend prayers, as he couldn’t afford taxi fare.
Friday prayers among the Sunni Baluch in Zahedan are significant religious events. Unlike in other regions of Iran, where Friday prayers are often government-organized, they hold special meaning in Zahedan.
On September 30, 2022, Lal Mohammad walked to the Makki Mosque as usual. After prayers, as he prepared to leave, he was shot in the chest and heart by government forces, killing him.
That Bloody Friday in Zahedan saw hundreds of protesters and worshippers, including children and elderly women, attacked with live ammunition and tear gas. Many victims were simply passersby or trying to leave the mosque.
Lal Mohammad’s father became worried when he didn’t return home. Without a phone to contact him, the family relied on neighbors to check on him.
The day passed with growing anxiety until the family learned that Lal Mohammad had been shot.
Abbas Anshini, Lal Mohammad’s brother, recalled in a video published by SunniOnline that he had desperately searched for his brother, but even at the hospital, no information was provided.
He described Lal Mohammad as “simple and honest” and noted that he always returned home promptly after prayers to ease his family’s worries.
The streets of Zahedan remained closed until midnight following the attack. Lal Mohammad’s body lay in the Makki Mosque for hours before neighbors brought him home around 10 PM.
A video shared widely among Baluch social media users showed his body being brought home, with his father weeping. The video received thousands of reactions of solidarity. Lal Mohammad’s body was later buried in a cemetery in Shirabad.
In a video published by SunniOnline, Abbas Anshini said that despite filing a complaint, they had not received any response.
The video was produced in the first year after the Zahedan Bloody Friday massacre, in interviews with several families of the victims at the Makki Mosque.
Abbas Anshini said that his brother had committed no crime, was innocent, and was unjustly killed, and he believes the perpetrators of his death and the deaths of the other innocent victims that day should be punished.
He demanded accountability from those who ordered the killings.
He asked, "Why and for what crime did they martyr my brother and hundreds of others? We demand the punishment of those responsible for the Bloody Friday massacre."
On September 30, Iranian security forces opened fire on a peaceful protest in the southeastern city, killing more than 100 demonstrators and bystanders, according to human rights activists in Sistan and Baluchistan province.
The unrest, which erupted some two weeks into nationwide protests demanding fundamental changes in the country, but its trigger were accusations that a regional police chief named Ebrahim Kochakzaei had raped a 15-year-old girl, Maho Baluch, in the port city of Chabahar, also in Sistan and Baluchistan.
Activists have long accused Iran’s Shia clerical leadership of discrimination against the region, where disproportionate numbers of ethnic Baluch are killed in clashes or hanged in executions each year.
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