ALBAWABA - Earlier on Saturday, dozens of Iranians were arrested as protestors in the southeast as they commemorated the brutal killing of dozens in the Zahedan region protests a year ago, in what they call "Bloody Friday".
According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Center, at least 104 Iranians were killed in Bloody Friday, where security forces violently cracked down on anti-regime protestors in Zahedan, the capital city of Sistan-Baluchistan province, on September 30 last year.
The Zahedan protests were sparked by reports that a teenage girl had been raped in custody by a police commander, and they occurred concurrently with nationwide protests sparked by the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, after her arrest in Tehran for allegedly wearing the hijab inappropriately.
According to the Baluch-focused rights group Haalvsh, security forces used tear gas and live ammunition for the second day in a row to disperse protests in Zahedan to mark the occasion,
Businesses in Zahedan and other towns were on strike all day Saturday, it said, adding that "dozens" of people had been arrested. Haalvsh shared a video with the sound of gunfire clearly audible amid the city's heavy security presence.
VOA reported that Molavi Abdul Hamid, the Friday prayer Imam of the Sunnis in Zahedan, referred to the events of September 30, 2022, as a "grave tragedy" during his Friday sermon. He declared, "The general public demands the punishment of those responsible for the Bloody Friday massacre".
Footage circulated on social media on Friday showed chaotic scenes as hospitals filled up with injured people, including children, while others on the streets tried to flee to safety amid heavy gunfire.
According to IHR, officials "brutally crushed" protests in Zahedan and other cities, using "live ammunition, pellet bullets, and tear gas against unarmed protesters".
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran in New York, criticized the "horrifying display of indiscriminate violence... as the state attempts to suppress peaceful protests".
