A group of more than 150 people attacked a police station in Zahedan. (file)
Tehran:
Authorities in Iran have fired two senior police officers in the southeastern city of Zahedan, state media said on Friday, four weeks after clashes that killed dozens, including military officers.
Violence erupted on 30 September in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province bordering Pakistan, in what Iranian officials described as an attack on security forces.
It comes against the backdrop of nationwide unrest that erupted after the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the ethics police in Tehran after she was accused of violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The Sistan-Balochistan Security Council said on Friday it had completed an investigation into the unrest at the request of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, acknowledging the “recklessness” and “innocent” civilian deaths by the authorities.
In a statement published by the state news agency IRNA, the council announced the sacking of Zahedan’s police chief as well as the head of a police station.
According to the statement, the violence began after Friday prayers in Zahedan, one of the few Sunni-majority cities in Shia Iran.
The statement said a group of more than 150 people had attacked a police station near the prayer site “with the aim of controlling it”.
It added that some of them were armed and the mob “pelted stones and opened fire”. Security forces fired tear gas shells and fired live.
The statement said the nearby mosque was not completely evacuated, and the clashes “unfortunately resulted in the injury and death of several civilians who were praying as well as passersby”.
The council acknowledged “negligence on the part of some authorities” and promised compensation for the families of “innocent victims” and legal action against those involved.
Some locals said that the protests erupted in anger after a police officer reported the rape of a teenager.
The Security Council said in its statement that “armed militants took advantage of this environment to attack civilians” and caused damage to public property, which required the intervention of security forces.
It said “several armed persons were killed and six members of the security forces were martyred”, including a Revolutionary Guard commander.
The official figure puts the number of civilian deaths at 35, including “some of those praying inside the mosque, killed … near the police station and killed by gunmen”.
Human rights groups based out of Iran have reported at least 93 people killed in Sistan-Balochistan province.
On October 21, three weeks after the deadly clashes, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Zahedan, and authorities said dozens of “rioters” had been arrested.
Poverty-stricken Sistan-Balochistan is a hotbed of conflict with drug trafficking gangs as well as rebels from the Balochi minority and Sunni Muslim extremist groups.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)