Sunni Cleric’s Office: Fridays in Baluchistan are “Bloodier” than in Jerusalem

The office of a prominent Iranian Sunni cleric who has been missing for four months accused the Islamic Republic of hypocrisy, saying that it is organizing rallies in support of the Palestinians while cracking down on its own people.

A statement published by Molavi Abdulghaffar Naqshbandi’s office called the state-sanctioned annual rallies marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day on April 14 a "spectacle.”

Abdulghaffar Naqshbandi is the Friday prayer leader of the city of Rask in the south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which is home to Iran's Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people. 

His whereabouts have remained unknown since he traveled to the north-eastern city of Mashhad on December 12 after he was issued a summons to attend a hearing at a special clerical court.

Abdulghaffar Naqshbandi had confirmed the September 27 rape of a 15-year-old Baluch girl by a police commander in the province.

Three days after the rape, security forces killed nearly 100 people who were protesting outside a police station in the provincial capital, Zahedan, after Friday prayers. Four security forces also lost their lives.

Abdulghaffar Naqshbandi’s office published its latest statement on the day tens of thousands of Iranians marched in cities across Iran to mark Quds Day.

“Fridays in Baluchistan are bloodier than in Jerusalem,” the statement reads.

“Your deception and hypocritical slogans have faded. Our people have recognized the real Jerusalem and Israel,” it added.

"Come to Zahedan on Fridays and see with your own eyes the coffins of Jerusalem people in front of the sticks of the Israeli hands,” it said, referring to the victims of Iranian security forces and Iran’s armed forces.

According to sources in Sistan and Baluchistan, the Friday prayer leader of Rask might have been arrested by the intelligence agency of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Since his disappearance, residents of Rask and other towns across the province have been holding demonstrations every Friday calling for his release, among other demands.