Two police officials in Zahedan have been sacked, state media reported, a month after dozens of people were killed in the eastern city during the unrest that has rocked Iran since mid-September.
The dismissals come amid high tension in Zahedan, where sources told IranWire that special forces accompanied by dozens of armored vehicles arrived in the morning while drones were flying over the city.
Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, was the scene of a violent crackdown on September 30 in which security forces killed 92 people, including 12 children, according to IranWire sources. Four security forces were also killed that day, dubbed Zahedan’s Black Friday.
The incident -- the deadliest in the nationwide unrest triggered by the September 16 death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police -- followed days of angry rallies over the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a police officer in Chabahar.
The deaths were widely criticized, including by a top Sunni cleric who said senior officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were responsible “before God.”
In a statement run by state media on Thursday, October 27, local officials admitted shortcomings by police on September 30, which they said led to the dismissal of Zahedan’s police chief and the head of a police station.
The statement said the “innocent victims and their families” would be compensated and a legal investigation had been opened that may lead to further measures against those who provoked the violence, rioters and any officials suspected of wrongdoing.
Sistan and Baluchistan is one of Iran’s poorest provinces and home to a Baluch minority estimated to number up to 2 million people.
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