Iran’s Leader sends delegation to Sistan-Baluchestan, orders probe into recent violence

Speaking in a meeting with a number of scholars on the recent events in Sistan and Baluchestan on Sunday, Mohammad-Javad Hajj Ali Akbari, the head of a delegation from Ayatollah Khamenei, said the Leader was saddened and concerned regarding the incidents and ordered them to be carefully investigated.

He said that the Leader called for taking necessary measures based on the results of the investigation.

Hajj Ali Akbari also said there will be no appeasement with criminals and those who foment insecurity.

“There will be no appeasement with those who have harmed the national and provincial security and committed crimes, and they must be punished and tried because the society’s security is a red line for all governments.”

Late in September, Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan province which is home to Iran’s Baluch minority, saw an attack on a police station and a mosque.

The assailants torched a fire engine, an emergency station, and a bank there, but according to authorities, their attempts to trigger an ethnic sedition in the region fell flat thanks to the timely presence of security forces.

The attacks, claimed by the so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group, left at least 19 people, including police officers, dead and 20 others injured.

Sistan and Baluchestan – which borders Pakistan – has witnessed several terror attacks targeting both civilians and security forces in recent years.

Terrorist groups carrying out attacks against Iranian interests in southeastern and southwestern parts of the country have known links to a number of repressive regimes in the Persian Gulf region.

Iran’s security forces have invariably protected the border areas and managed to repel almost all terrorist attacks by foreign-backed anti-revolution elements across the country.