Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
The head of Iran’s Armed Forces Judicial Organization has revealed that indictments have been issued for 26 individuals suspected of having links to the November 30 massacre in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan that saw at least 100 people killed.
The November 30 incident, a day that has become known as “Bloody Friday,” was marked by widespread protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a local police commander before direct gunfire from security forces mowed down dozens of people.
During a visit to Zahedan, Ahmadreza Pourkhaqan said charges have been filed against 11 security officers for shootings that resulted in death and injury. An additional 15 have been accused of abusing their professional positions.
The province of Sistan-Baluchistan, particularly the city of Zahedan, has been the epicenter of protests in Iran for months.
Last December, in an audio file leaked from a meeting of the Iranian pro-regime Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces, the secretary of the council, Reza Davari, was recorded confessing to the “very egregious mistake” made by security forces during “Bloody Friday.”
Molavi Abdolhamid, a spiritual leader for Iran’s Sunni Muslim population, had previously said senior officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were “responsible” for the killing of protesters during the massacre in Zahedan.
Anger over Amini’s death in police custody on September 16 prompted thousands of Iranians to take to the streets nationwide to demand more freedoms and women’s rights. The widespread unrest represents the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
Her death, which officials blamed on a heart attack, touched off a wave of anti-government protests in cities across the country. The authorities have responded to the unrest with a harsh crackdown that rights groups say has killed more than 500 people, including 71 children.
Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the population in Sistan-Baluchistan Province in southeastern Iran, where Abdolhamid is based, but make up only about 10 percent of the population in Shi’a-dominated Iran overall.
