Deadly unrest raises Iranian city

The unrest erupted earlier this week when protesters stormed a local governor’s building and another police station. These incidents came in response to patrols of the revolutionary guard who shot at suspected fuel smugglers crossing the Pakistani border and killing at least ten people, according to rights activists in the area.

Iranian Presidential Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi blamed Pakistani border guards this week for the shooting and said they had shot at smugglers intending to use border points designated for fuel traders. According to the government, two or three people were killed.

A senior Pakistani official said he was not aware of any formal complaint or allegation by Iran against the country’s forces, and that Pakistani troops did not fire.

The Iranian government said on Thursday afternoon that the situation had calmed down, but that no attackers had been arrested. The latest unrest is limited to Saravan, but local protests over economic discontent have spread nationwide in the past.

Internet and telephone lines were partially cut off during the recent unrest, according to social media users watching Internet traffic in Sistan-Baluchistan province, of which Saravan is a part. Restricting internet access is a tactic used by the Iranian authorities to prevent the dissemination of information and restrict communication among protesters.

In recent years, protests rooted in economic discontent have posed significant security challenges to the government and led to large-scale repression, most recently in late 2019 when hundreds were killed in a crackdown on protests across the country. The protests were caused by a rise in fuel prices.

The Iranian government blames US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration for the economic situation in the country, exacerbated by the economic slowdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sistan-Baluchistan, the second largest of Iran’s 31 provinces by area, has been one of the country’s poorest and most marginalized areas for centuries. Its population consists mainly of the Baloch, a Sunni Muslim minority.

Iranian authorities have long maintained a strong security presence in the province due to the low intensity of insurgency involving several militant groups – some separatist nationalists, others Sunni Islamic extremists – who have been branded terrorists by Tehran.

Deputy Provincial Security Minister Mohammad Hadi Marashi told state media on Thursday that some of the attackers behind the riots were linked to opposition groups, without naming them.

The province borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is on the main drug trade route from South Asia to Europe. Amid high inflation, a weakened currency and severely restricted international trade due to sanctions, smuggling petrol from Iran could provide a significant illegal income. Iranians continue to enjoy the lowest fuel prices in the world due to large government subsidies.

President Hassan Rouhani has said he will step up the fight against smuggling to improve the country’s economy. From March to November last year, Iranian authorities fined smugglers, especially fuel and livestock, about $ 570 million, an increase of almost 50% compared to the same period last year.

Iranian social media users in recent days have accused the authorities of using violence against a poor population. Some drew parallels with the massacre in the southwestern port city of Mahshahr in 2019, home to another Sunni minority, when Revolutionary Guards forces surrounded protesters and killed up to 100 civilians.

The Defenders of Human Rights Center, an advocacy group led by Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, wrote a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday, requesting an investigation into the killings by security forces in Sistan-Baluchistan.

—Saeed Shah in Islamabad contributed to this article.

Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen by [email protected]