Baluch Villagers Cut Off from Telephone, Internet Services for Two Weeks

Residents of seven villages in the south-eastern Iranian district of Dashtiari have been denied telephone and internet services for two weeks, in what activists in Sistan and Baluchistan province called a violation of human rights.

Abdul Aziz Ramesh, head of the village council of Hamzeh, said that villagers have to travel 20 kilometers to be able to use telephone and internet services. 

Officials have said the problem was caused by recent rains and promised to resolve it, but there has been no progress so far.

Sistan and Baluchistan province is home to Iran's Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people. Human rights groups say the Baluch community and other ethnic minorities in Iran face discrimination in the judicial system and their everyday lives, with the authorities curtailing their access to education, employment, adequate housing and political office.