Strikes in Iran in Solidarity with the “Dead of Zahedan”

Yesterday, Wednesday, several Iranian cities witnessed strikes and gatherings in solidarity with the dead in the city of Zahedan, the center of Baluchistan province, where more than ninety people were killed in the border province with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Kurdish human rights organization “Hengaw” published videos of closed shops in the cities of Sanandaj, Bukan, Bana and Saqez, Mahsa Amini’s hometown, whose death while in police custody sparked the latest public protests in Iran since September 17. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) said that shop owners in the “Vali Asr” industrial district in Tehran closed their stores.

Kurdish opposition parties said in a joint statement, “We call on all the people of Iran and Kurdistan to condemn, in any way possible, the killing of Baluchis on Bloody Friday, and to express their protest and solidarity with the families of the dead and victims in Balochistan.”

And the Iranian police chief, Hossein Ashtari, decided to replace the commander of Balochistan, after the suppression of a protest march in the city of Khash, after last Friday prayers, killed sixteen people, which is the bloodiest day in the second month of protests.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Iranian army’s ground forces, Brigadier-General Kiomars Heydari, said “rioters” would have no place in the country if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a tougher crackdown on the protests.

The Iranian Minister of Intelligence, Ismail Khatib, also accused Britain of being behind the “destabilization of security” in Iran, and said, “Britain will pay the price for its actions.”

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