Baluchistan and Sistan Province Going Through Unrest

Even as two weeks have passed since five policemen were kidnapped by Jeish-al-Adel armed group efforts to find them have not produced any results. In a related development, the head of police of the town of Iranshahr in southern Iran was killed in an armed battle with rebels.

In the meantime, the prosecutor of Zahedan, the capital of southern province of Baluchistan near the Pakistani border on the south, has announced the prosecution and request for the death penalty for the defendants of an attack that occurred two weeks ago in the town of Zabol in the province. This province has witnessed the most unrest in the country in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, Iranian media reported that colonel Noorbakhsh Dehgan, the police chief for battling narcotics for the town of Iranshahr had been killed in an armed clash. Fars news agency quoted the deputy police commander of the province who said that two rebels and armed smugglers had been killed in armed clashes.

On Tuesday a day prior to the above report, news agencies published reports of the death of seven police officers and four members of an armed rebel group in the central province of Fars.

Cyrus Sajjadian, the top police commander in the province of Fars announced that these clashes erupted after the police learned that a group of armed smugglers had come from the province of Baluchistan and intended to distribute their drugs in the province.

According to the police, four tons of narcotics had been found because of these operations.

Shootouts are not uncommon in the province of Baluchistan resulting in a number of deaths every year.

This latest round of killings in Baluchistan come about after officials announced they had rounded up a number of members of terror rings. The prosecutor of the town of Zabol, Mousavi Noori Ghole, was shot and killed earlier this year on his way to work. Mohammad Marzie, the prosecutor of Zahedan announced that he had requested the death penalty for two of the terror members.

The minister of interior announced that Pakistan was cooperating with Iranian authorities on these cases.