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Iranian security forces attacked people in the Sunni-majority city of Zahedan in the southeast, and arrested many who wanted to hold rallies after Friday prayers.
Since Friday morning, security was tense around the Makki Jameh Mosque of Zahedan, where outspoken Sunni leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid weekly delivers fiery sermons criticizing the Islamic Republic and its policies. The people of the Sistan-Baluchestan, with Zahedan as provincial capital, have been holding weekly protests after security forces opened fire at peaceful protesters, killing nearly 100 on September 30, 2022, a day known as the Bloody Friday of Zahedan.
Abdolhamid has repeatedly called for an end to repression in the past one year and respect for civic and human rights in Iran.
The heavy security atmosphere on Ocotber 20 can be related to a wave of crackdown against the Sunni community, particularly dissident Sunni clerics and their close circles, including arrests and travel bans, especially since the Israel-Hamas conflict began earlier in the month.
HaalVsh, a website dedicated to human rights and events in Sistan-Baluchestan, reported violent arrests and mass detention of people around the Makki Mosque. “Security and military forces have surrounded the mosque and are attempting to enter,” it said.
Citing local sources, HaalVsh said security forces are transferring detained people with military as well as personal vehicles, while some of these people have been injured during the clashes with the forces.
In the footage from the protests, gunshots are heard, and security forces use teargas to control the crowd. In one of the videos, a group of regime forces, military vehicles and motorbikes are seen moving in a street as protesters surround them from both ends of the street.
In another video, people are heard chanting “Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, I will die for Iran,” a common slogan in rallies against the Islamic Republic, which is the main sponsor of regional Islamist militias such as Hamas, which instigated the bloody war in the Middle East earlier in October.
During the Friday prayer sermons, Mowlavi Abdolhamid, who rejected the regime’s goal of destroying Israel the previous Friday, reiterated his call for a fair global solution to the conflict. The Israel-Hamas war has reached a "dangerous point," he said, adding that "The war in Gaza must come to an end, and the prisoners and hostages must be set free." His stance on the conflict, calling for peace between Palestinians and Israel, may be one of the reasons for the regime’s intensified crackdown on Sunnis in Iran.
He also called on the international community to probe into this week's explosion at a Gaza hospital, which caused a media frenzy around the world. Israel has provided mountains of evidence to prove that it did not target the hospital, but Hamas says Israel has killed hundreds of Gazans in an 80-bed hospital.
Given the conflicting narratives of the two parties over the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, “the international community should impartially investigate this matter to ascertain the truth,” Abdolhamid said.
Elsewhere in his sermon, Abdolhamid criticized the regime for pressures on the Sunni community, particularly mentioning two Sunni clerics who were prohibited from travelling to Zahedan to meet him. Abdolhamid also slammed the regime for closing down a Sunni prayer house in the capital Tehran. Iranian Sunnis have always faced difficulties in establishing mosques or holding gatherings in large cities, especially the capital and its suburbs.
