Zahedan Police Chief Fired After Dozens Killed in Protests Against Iranian Authorities

MADRID, 28 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The police chief of the Iranian city of Zahedan, one of the epicenters of the wave of protests against the country's authorities, has been dismissed after the official investigation recognized "deaths of innocent civilians" during the police repression of the clashes that erupted in the town late last month.

The protests in this city, with a Sunni majority, began at the end of September, fueled by the massive marches in the rest of the country in memory of the young Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, who died in custody on the 16th of that month after being detained by the Morale Police when wearing the veil wrong.

The marches took on a special character in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, where people came out to protest not only Amini, but also the rape of a 15-year-old Baloch girl by a police chief.

The worst moment of the protests in Zahedan occurred on the so-called Bloody Friday, on September 30, when, according to NGOs, the repression of the security forces left more than 90 dead in the city. That day, some 150 people launched a protest against the city's 16th police station, near a mosque, in memory of the raped teenager.

Although the investigation, following the official Iranian line, blames "rioters and gunmen" for increasing the tension and attempting to storm the police station, the assessment also concludes that "the shooting by the police forces" in reaction to the march "provoked the injuries and deaths of several innocent citizens, bystanders who played no part in these disturbances.

In this sense, the Security Council of Sistan and Balochistan has recognized "negligence on the part of some officials" and promised compensation for the families of the "innocent victims", as well as legal action against those involved.

Along with the city's police chief, the head of the police station threatened for his exaggerated response to the protests has also been dismissed, according to a statement from the Iranian authorities collected by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. In the same note, the local government sets the number of deaths during the riots in this city at 35, far from the balance of Iranian humanitarian activists.