Molavi Abdulhamid Criticizes Lack of Attention to the 'Bloody Friday' Massacre Case in Zahedan

Abdulhamid Ismailzahi, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan, criticized the lack of attention to the case of the 'Bloody Friday' in Zahedan, nearly two years after the incident. He made these remarks during the Friday prayer on September 9, 2023, at Makki Mosque in Zahedan. He stated, 'Nearly two years after the Bloody Friday incident in Zahedan, this issue has still not been addressed; we still do not know the motive behind this event.' The Sunni Friday prayer leader of Zahedan also noted the coincidence of security forces' violence against protesting worshippers in Zahedan on October 8, 2022, with the protests following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the morality police, saying, 'Perhaps this incident in Zahedan occurred to prevent the people of this region from joining the protests or was aimed at serving as a lesson for others.' He emphasized that despite two years having passed since this incident, it has still not been addressed by officials, and he identified 'the implementation of justice' and 'the elimination of discrimination' as the greatest demands of the Iranian people and the primary duty of the government. On October 8, 2022, when the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests were spreading across Iran, a group of people in Zahedan gathered after the Sunni Friday prayer at Makki Mosque to protest what they called 'the assault by Ibrahim Kuchakzai, the police chief of Chabahar, on a teenage Baluch girl.' Security forces fired directly at them from inside a police station, killing at least one hundred people in the shootings. In other protests held on November 4, 2022, in the city of Khash, 16 people were killed. Molavi Abdulhamid has previously called for the prosecution of those responsible for and ordering this massacre. The Baloch Activists Campaign recently reported that the court hearing for this case was held in late February 2023 over two sessions, and the court president asked the families of the victims to accept blood money without hearing their statements, which they refused. The Iran Human Rights Organization had called for the referral of this case to international judicial bodies as a 'crime against humanity' on the first anniversary of the 'Bloody Friday' in Zahedan. The military prosecutor regarding the Bloody Friday incident stated that the case's verdicts have not yet been finalized.