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Iranwire – Hundreds of people returned to the streets of the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan after Friday prayers despite a heavy presence of security forces.
Ahead of the weekly protests, reports from the restive city said Internet services were disrupted and a number of people were arrested around Grand Makki Mosque, the largest Sunni mosque in the country.
A video shared on social media shows a person being beaten and arrested by security forces.
Guards at the #Zahedan Friday prayers mosque block Revolutionary Guards forces from entering the mosque through its roof. Protesters in Zahedan have taken to the streets for anti-government demonstrations every week after Friday prayers since #IranProtests began in September 2022 pic.twitter.com/P8QiFh4P3e— IranWire (@IranWireEnglish) February 24, 2023
🎞️ Security forces surround the #Zahedan Friday prayers mosque and internet access has been severely disrupted. Zahedan demonstrators have taken to the streets each Friday since #IranProtests began in September 2022.#truth #IranRevoIution pic.twitter.com/FAKVYimhb8— IranWire (@IranWireEnglish) February 24, 2023
In another clip, guards at the mosque can be seen blocking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from entering the Grand Makki Mosque’s compound.
Haalvsh, a group that monitors rights violations of the Sunni minority in Iran, said that the sermon of Zahedan’s Sunni Friday prayer leader, Molavi Abdolhamid, was not broadcast live due to the Internet disruptions.
Zahedan is the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, home to Iran’s Sunni Baluch minority of up to 2 million people.
Residents have been holding protest rallies every Friday since September 30, when security forces killed nearly 100 people in the deadliest incident so far in the nationwide demonstrations triggered by the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.
Molavi, Iran’s most prominent Sunni cleric, has been a key dissenting voice inside the country since the eruption of the protest movement. Last week, he reiterated his call for a referendum to determine under which political system Iranians want to live.
Molavi has repeatedly denounced the deadly crackdown on the demonstrations and urged Iran’s Shia clerical leaders to listen to the Iranian people instead of repressing them.
The Iranian security forces have killed more than 520 people across the country, including dozens of children, and unlawfully detained over 19,000 others since the eruption of the protest movement, activists say.
Following biased trials, the judiciary has handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters. Four protesters have been executed so far amid international condemnation.
The demonstrations and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in the country’s western Kurdish areas and Sistan and Baluchistan.
