Local police chief assassinated in Iran's restive southeast
A senior police officer in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchestan province was killed by unknown assailants near his house on Friday, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported.
A senior police officer in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchestan province was killed by unknown assailants near his house on Friday, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News reported.
The Sunni Islamist militant group Jaish ul-Adl has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Hossein Piri, a deputy chief of Public Security Police Department of Khash.
The group has a history of carrying out such attacks in Sistan-Baluchestan, including ambushes and bombings, killing dozens of Iranian civilians and armed personnel. Both Iran and the US, as well as some international bodies, have designated Jaish ul-Adl as a terrorist organization
The Friday assassination seems to follow a familiar pattern where local officials are targeted in ‘revenge’ for ‘brutalizing residents.’
The officer killed Friday, Piri, is said to have been “involved in harassing, abusing, and violently arresting” people in the area, according to a report by Haalvsh, a local organization focused on human rights abuses in Sistan- Baluchestan.
“Piri had raided a residential home in… Khash, where he violently arrested two Baloch citizens, while also shooting and using offensive language,” Haalvsh quoted an unnamed source. “He was targeted and shot by armed individuals after leaving his home… and was killed.”
Abdolghaffar Naghshbandi, a former Friday prayers leader in Rask, alleged that Piri's agents had "killed" two Baloch women a few days ago. "This is how the cost of assaulting women across Iran is paid," he tweeted shortly after the assassination.
According to Tasnim, Piri was killed after attending Friday prayers on a mission in plainclothes. “An investigation has been launched into his killing,” Sistan-Baluchestan prosecutor said Friday.
Sistan-Baluchestan is located in southeastern Iran, bordering both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is one of Iran’s more deprived and brutalized provinces where the Sunni majority suffers persistent human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and religious discrimination.
