Local police chief killed in Saravan Baluchistan

The officer, Alireza Shahraki, was in his car in the city of Saravan when unknown gunmen opened fire at him. Shahraki’s wife was also injured during the attack.

Doost Ali Jalilian, the province’s police chief, said investigations are underway to identify and arrest the perpetrators. No arrests made in connection to the attack yet.

Saeed Tajlili, the governor of Saravan, told IRNA on Sunday that Lieutenant Colonel Ali-Reza Shahraki had been assassinated earlier in the day when he was inside his own car at a crossroad in Saravan.

Shahraki’s wife was seriously injured in the attack, said the governor, adding that an investigation was launched to identify the perpetrators.

In January, two police officers were killed in Bampour County while in the line of duty. The police chief of Sistan-Baluchistan province said at the time that the officers were attacked by “evil” assailants in early hours while walking the beat in Bampour. After attacking the officers, the police chief said, the evil assailants sped away.

In early December, a conscript was killed and another wounded in a deadly shooting in the border province. The two conscripts were targeted at night in the port city of Chabahar, southeast Iran.

The officer’s wife was also severely wounded in the attack and taken to hospital in critical condition. Judiciary officials say no one has been detained yet but a manhunt is underway to arrest the perpetrators.

Halvash website that covers Baluchestan events reported that Shahraki used “extremely violent” methods against detainees in the past years.

Earlier in March, two other police officers were gunned down in the restive province with a Sunni-majority population. The attack occurred in a region called Golshan.

Local media identified the two officers as Mohsen Pudinei and Ehsan Shahraki who were shot “while carrying out a security mission regarding Friday prayers”.

Last week, tensions built up in Fanuj in the same province after regime forces ran over two motorcycles with their vehicles killing a young man.

The outraged local population took to the streets to protest the actions of the repressive forces in the province. Local media reported that police opened fire at the protesters.

In recent months, pressure on the people in Sistan-Baluchistan has increased, and the situation in various cities has been described as very tense, especially on Fridays, when residents come out to protest against the regime.

The protests began on September 30, 2022, after nationwide unrest broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini.

According to the media, two gunmen shot at the conscripts who were in the line of duty. One conscript, identified as Aref Hooti, lost his life as a result of the shooting and the other one, Benyamin Fazeli, was shot in the shoulder and received treatment in a local hospital.

The province witnessed a surge in violence during the protests that erupted September in 2022, with dozens killed and injured in the provincial capital of Zahedan.