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Religious Minorities

“Life for Bread” Twitter Campaign Puts Killing of Baluch Fuel Carriers under Spotlight

April 17, 2023
Roghayeh Rezaei
5 min read
Since the start of the Persian New Year on March 21, at least 17 Baluch fuel carriers have been killed and six others have been wounded
Since the start of the Persian New Year on March 21, at least 17 Baluch fuel carriers have been killed and six others have been wounded
Baluch activists say that the victims have been either shot directly by government forces or have been killed in accidents while being chased
Baluch activists say that the victims have been either shot directly by government forces or have been killed in accidents while being chased
The national ID card of Osman Molazehi, a fuel carrier who was killed when his car burst into flames
The national ID card of Osman Molazehi, a fuel carrier who was killed when his car burst into flames

 

Many people in and around the south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which is home to Iran's mostly Sunni ethnic Baluch minority, resort to carrying fuel across the border to make a meager living.

They are called “fuel carriers” (sookhtbars in Persian), although the government refers to them as “smugglers” and treats them no better than terrorists.

Masoud Raeisi, an administrator of the news and analysis website Rasank News, is among a group of Baluch activists who launched earlier this month the “Life for Bread'' Twitter campaign to honor their dangerous lives.

“In the past two weeks, 23 fuel carriers were killed and injured on the road. Unfortunately, 17 of them were killed including three who were under 18. This pushed Baluch activists, including me, to launch a Twitter campaign and to attract media attention on what these people are going through,” Raeisi told IranWire.

“Fortunately, we succeeded and our efforts were well-received by activists and Twitter users. More than 51,000 tweets were posted” under the hashtag “#BleedingBread, he added.

Carrying Fuel to Survive

According to these tweets, those killed were either shot directly by security forces or lost their lives in accidents while being chased by agents. Despite the dangers of the activity, they said, many men in impoverished areas of south-eastern Iran have no other choice but to become fuel carriers to make a living.

“To survive, these people carry large volumes of fuel in their unsafe cars, in extremely unsafe containers, to the borders. Many burn in these death carriages because the police shoot them or they have accidents during high-speed chases. Why? It’s their only source of income,” Kamran tweeted.

A person, under the name of Hessam Baluch, told the “short story of a fuel carrier.” “He had a bachelor’s degree, did his military service. Was hoping to get a job. He had no capital, so he gave up and started carrying fuel. News came that his body and the car turned into ashes.” He posted a picture of the scorched national ID card of the man, Osman Molazehi, who died in the fire.

They’re not Hired because They are Sunni and Baluch”

Another Twitter user, Nomad, wrote, “Our Baluch fellow countrymen who are forced to carry fuel are educated but they have no other choice to make a living since all opportunities have been taken away from them because they are Sunnis and the jobs go to non-natives who are loyal to the Islamic Republic and its agents.” 

IranWire spoke with a Baluch citizen in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan, who himself has carried fuel for some time. He said that before fuel carriers hit the road, they bid farewell to their families as if they see them for the last time: “They meet with their families as if they are about to be hanged. All fuel carriers are in such an extremely painful situation. Some of my own friends were burned alive…The military agents never order you to stop or give you a warning. They just shoot.”

“Most of the fuel carriers are educated and could have served their community, but they’re not hired because they are Sunni and Baluch,” he added.

In May 2020, Alim Yar Mohammadi, member of the parliament from Zahedan, told the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) that the unemployment rate in Sistan and Baluchistan was between 40 and 60 percent. However, the real unemployment rate is believed to be higher.

Killing Fuel Carriers As A Mean to Suppress Baluch People

“Carrying fuel is one of the few jobs that allows people in Baluchistan to bring bread to their families. In fact, we can even say that in all Baluch areas the only work that brings an income is to carry fuel,” Raeisi said.

“There have been many fuel carriers who have been targeted and shot at the head. This shows that they shoot to kill. People know this but they carry fuel in order to survive,” he added.

Raeisi emphasized that the killing of fuel carriers is part of the Islamic Republic’s policy of systematic discrimination against the Baluch minority. “The Islamic Republic considers whatever is moved from place to place in Baluchistan as smuggling, even if it is the onions and potatoes that are grown in Dashtiari in Baluchistan itself. Even when people go shopping, the government views it as smuggling.” 

He said that security forces routinely stop cars and confiscate their cargo.

Raeisi said that fuel carriers “come from among the very poor people of Baluchistan or are individuals who have no ID documents, who cannot benefit from any services and who are forced to carry fuel to make a living.”

But even some members of the middle class become fuel carriers because of the desperate economic situation, runaway inflation and the high unemployment rate, he added.

“They know that when they go, there might be no tomorrow. But they put their lives on the line because they say that they must make some money to survive. They have no other choice even though they all know that it’s very dangerous.”

Each week, hundreds of people are taking to the streets of Zahedan after Friday prayers to protest the bloody repression of the Islamic Republic. 

The Baluch citizen who spoke with IranWire said that the authorities “want to silence the protesters by killing more fuel carriers.”

“They want to send this message to the people: ‘We control your daily bread. You can take a piece of bread to your family if we want to, but, if we don’t want to, we can kill you.”

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