[LINK] "Q&A: Iranian Balochistan is a 'Hunting Ground'"
The Inter Press Service shares an interview with an Iranian Baluchi leader who argues that Baluchis, like other Iranian minorities and like their co-ethnics in neighbouring Pakistan, face an oppressive state.
You once said that Iranian Balochistan has become “a hunting ground”. Can you explain this?
It´s a hunting ground for the Iranian security forces. Even a commander of the Mersad [security] admitted openly that it had been ordered to kill, and not to arrest people.
As a result, many of our villages have suffered house-to-house searches which has emptied them of youth. The latter have either been killed systematically or emigrated elsewhere.
The fact that our population has decreased threefold since the times of the Pahlevis speaks volumes about the situation in our region.
Human Rights Watch has further documented the fact that the Baloch populated region has been systematically divided by successive regimes in Tehran to create a demographic imbalance.
Less than a century ago, our region was called “Balochistan”. Later its name would be changed to “Balochistan and Sistan”, then “Sistan and Balochistan”… The plan is to finally call it “Sistan” and divide it into three districts: Wilayat, Sistan and Saheli.
You once said that Iranian Balochistan has become “a hunting ground”. Can you explain this?
It´s a hunting ground for the Iranian security forces. Even a commander of the Mersad [security] admitted openly that it had been ordered to kill, and not to arrest people.
As a result, many of our villages have suffered house-to-house searches which has emptied them of youth. The latter have either been killed systematically or emigrated elsewhere.
The fact that our population has decreased threefold since the times of the Pahlevis speaks volumes about the situation in our region.
Human Rights Watch has further documented the fact that the Baloch populated region has been systematically divided by successive regimes in Tehran to create a demographic imbalance.
Less than a century ago, our region was called “Balochistan”. Later its name would be changed to “Balochistan and Sistan”, then “Sistan and Balochistan”… The plan is to finally call it “Sistan” and divide it into three districts: Wilayat, Sistan and Saheli.