Scores of Arrests Made over Protests Marking Zahedan’s “Bloody Friday”

At least 216 protesters have been arrested in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan since the eruption of protests on September 29 marking the one-year anniversary of Zahedan’s Bloody Friday massacre, Baluch activists reported.

Haalvsh, a website which covers news in the Baluch areas of Iran, said that the arrests were made during and after the protests in the cities of Zahedan, Khash, Mirjaveh and Chabahar. 

It said 32 of those taken into custody were aged between 13 and 18, and that the security forces subjected them to "violence and beatings." 

There is no available information regarding their current status.

Videos circulating on social media show that cities across Sistan and Baluchistan province remain under tight security, with police and military being deployed in the streets and squares of Zahedan, the provincial capital.

Hundreds of Zahedan residents took to the streets of the restive city after Friday prayers on September 29, chanting slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Security forces fired tear gas, live rounds and pellets at the crowds, wounding at least 23 people, according to local reports.

Similar street demonstrations were held in other cities, including Khash and Rask.

Zahedan has seen protest rallies almost every Friday since September 30 of last year, when security forces killed 108 people, according to local human rights groups, the deadliest incident in the widespread demonstrations sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Sistan and Baluchistan is home to Iran's Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people.