Nine More Arrested in Zahedan; Reports of Torture of a Baloch Citizen at Zahedan Police Station Confirmed

As the atmosphere of repression continues in Zahedan, police forces have arrested at least nine more citizens, while the mistreatment of a Baloch citizen by a police officer at a Zahedan police station has led to the dismissal of the station chief. According to Halvosh, which covers news related to Sistan and Baluchestan, these nine citizens were arrested on the evening of Wednesday, October 4, following a protest gathering in the Chaman Karimabad area of Zahedan. No information has been released regarding the identities of these individuals, their charges, or the location of their detention. In another incident, following reports of the mistreatment of a Baloch citizen with a stun gun at the 13th district police station in Shirabad, Iranian media reported the dismissal of the station chief. The footage shows a soldier inside the station forcing a detained Baloch citizen to face the wall and raise his hands before using a stun gun on him. According to Mehr News Agency on Thursday, October 5, the station chief was dismissed due to "lack of oversight and negligence in fulfilling legal duties and lack of responsibility." Halvosh, quoting Baloch citizens, described such mistreatment by government agents as "recurrent" and "unrecorded." No information has been released about the identity of the mistreated citizen or the timing of the incident, but Halvosh reports that he is likely one of the detainees from the protests on Friday in Zahedan. Mistreatment of prisoners and their beating by government agents is not unprecedented, and over the past decades, dozens of prisoners, especially political ones, have suspiciously died in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Additionally, two years ago, the release of videos showing mistreatment and torture of prisoners by prison officials led to the dismissal of Mohammad Mehdi Haj-Mohammadi, the head of Iran's prisons organization, although he was later appointed to head the "Office of Special Inspection and Citizens' Rights" of the judiciary. Furthermore, the recent events have highlighted the suffering of the Baloch people after years of neglect, as noted by Fariba Baloch. The quiet replacement of the police commander in Zahedan came just one day after the anniversary of the Bloody Friday. Over 200 people were arrested on the anniversary of "Bloody Friday in Zahedan," with at least 32 of them being teenagers. Exclusive claims of insecurity along Iran's eastern borders have been made by a journalist, stating that repression is being conducted under the guise of counter-terrorism operations.