The IOPHR’s Report on Ongoing Human Rights Violations Against The Baloch Minority In Iran Was Presented At The October 8, 2024, International Religious Freedom Roundtable held In Berlin
These days mark the first anniversary of the horrific, anti-Semitic terrorist attack on southern Israel, during which more than 1,200 innocent people from around the world, who had gathered in Israel for a music festival, were brutally murdered. The victims of this heinous act were, in fact, casualties of the policies of ruling regime in Iran that promotes religious hatred.
However, these are not the only victims of such divisive and hateful politics. We are also on the second anniversary of the massacre in Zahedan and Khash ,two cities in southeastern Iran, where hundreds of innocent men, women, and children were slaughtered simply because they followed a different faith.
This massacre, too, was carried out under the orders of the same individuals responsible for the attack on the Nova festival in Israel. In this horrific massacre, thousands of Sunni worshipers in Zahedan and Khash were returning from Friday prayers, when, they were attacked with automatic weapons mounted on helicopters and machine guns on the ground, brutally killed in cold blood. Over 200 people lost their lives, and hundreds were injured, many permanently disabled.
This brutal killing on what is now , known as “Bloody Friday of Zahedan” is just one example of the hateful policies carried out by the ruling regime in Iran against the innocent Sunni population of Sistan and Baluchistan. Iran has long had the highest execution rate in the world, second only to Communist China, however, the per capita rate of executions in Iran is the highest globally.
Last year alone, over 700 people were executed in Iran, with nearly 50% of these executions taking place in Sistan and Baluchistan province, despite the fact that the province’s population accounts for less than 3% of the country’s total population.
This means that half of all executions in a country with the world’s highest per capita execution rate, were inflicted upon just 3% of the population all of whom are Sunnis.
The systematic persecution of Sunnis in Iran’s Balochistanm, is not limited to extrajudicial killings, as many are also killed in prison or under torture and also in the streets by shooting.
This is a state-organized policy, as official reports reveal that high-ranking Shia clerics have instructed security forces to restrict the Sunni population. Thus, in addition to their goal of eliminating Israel, Shia religious leaders in Iran are also working to limit the Sunni population within the country. In the comprehensive implementation of this policy, the sectarian regime in Iran even denies birth certificates to many babies born into Sunni families, leaving them unable to obtain national identity.
Their mosques have been destroyed, and even no mosques exist for millions of Sunnis in Tehran. These practices point to a silent genocide that has been occurring against Sunni citizens in Iran for years. Meanwhile, the regime hypocritically spreads anti-Semitic propaganda and incites violence, especially among Sunni Muslims in the Middle East, through false narratives and hate speech. We seek recognition of the silent genocide against Sunnis in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province, as a crime against humanity, and call for it to be subjected to international accountability and punishment under applicable laws.
From Zahedan to Gaza, the violence against humanity shares a common root—one that must be eradicated.