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Iran-HRM – Iranian security forces shot and killed a 19-year-old Baluch man in an impoverished province in southeastern Iran bringing the total number of fatal shootings by regime forces to at least seven in February.
The young Baluch man, Mohammad Sanjarzehi, was shot and killed by security forces on February 15. He was carrying a 60L gas can when security forces shot at his car without prior warning.
The Iranian regime has a long history of fatally shooting Iranians especially the members of Baluch and Kurd minorities.
Impoverished Baluch citizens are forced to carry fuel to make ends meet.
The state security forces had previously shot and killed another Baluch man and injured one in Sistan and Baluchestan Province on February 13.
Anti-narcotics agents in Sistan and Baluchestan shot at Qasem Arzi Zehi’s car without initial warning. His car overturned leading to his death, while another unidentified man who was with him was injured.
A Baloch citizen identified as Ghasem Arzizehi was killed & another was injured when their car was overturned after the state security forces opened fire on them in Saravan. There are almost daily reports of police opening fire on civilians carrying fuel in southeastern #Iran. pic.twitter.com/zvFKqXjYZ0— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) February 14, 2021
Dozens of Baluchi citizens including innocent bystanders, are killed every year in what the authorities call “anti-smuggling operations” in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.
Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province
Sistan and Baluchestan is one of Iran’s poorest provinces. There are no jobs in the area and even educated people have to resort to smuggling fuel to make a living.
Those living in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province are facing untold social and economic problems because of longstanding deprivation and poverty, which is becoming worse as inequality becomes more pronounced.
Some have even fled the province for neighboring Kerman, which itself is one of the poorest provinces in the country, where the Baluch people live in tents, with no electricity or running water.
On September 5, 2020, Ali Khezrian, a member of the Parliament (Majlis), said: “We traveled to the city of Iranshahr, the second-largest city in southeast Iran, and visited its villages. Unfortunately, the people of this area are deprived of facilities, such as showers and toilets. There were no suitable electricity facilities in the villages.”
