#Baluchistan unrest

[risingpakistan]

بلوچ مظاہرین کو گلے لگائیں

بلوچستان میں مبینہ ماورائے عدالت قتل اور جبری گمشدگیوں کے خلاف آوازاُٹھانے کیلئے تربت سے اسلام آباد تک لانگ مارچ کرنے والوں، جن میں خواتین اور بچے بھی شامل ہیں، سے جس طریقہ سے اسلام آباد پولیس نے رویہ رکھا، اُن پر ڈنڈے برسائے، اُنہیں گرفتار کیا، یہ انتہائی قابل مذمت اور افسوسناک امر ہے۔ جب احتجاج پر امن تھا تو پھر یہ زور زبردستی کیوں کی گئی؟ ہونا تو یہ چاہیے تھا کہ جب یہ مارچ تربت سے چلا تو وفاقی و صوبائی حکومتوں کے ذمہ داران لانگ مارچ کے شرکاء سے اُسی وقت رابطہ کرتے، بات چیت کرتے، اُن کے جائز مطالبات تسلیم کرتے اور مسئلہ کا پر امن حل نکالتے۔ اب جب یہ لانگ مارچ اسلام آباد پہنچ گیا تو ضرورت اس امر کی تھی کہ ان مظاہرین کے ساتھ سنجیدگی سے مذاکرات کیے جاتے لیکن یہاں ان پر ڈنڈے برسائے گئے، خواتین اور بچوں سمیت بڑی تعداد میں احتجاج میں شریک افراد کو گرفتار کیا گیا۔ نگراں حکومت کے وزراء کی طرف سے کہا گیا کہ کچھ افراد منہ ڈھانپے اسلام آباد ��یں اس مارچ میں شریک ہوئے اور حکومت کے پاس مصدقہ اطلاعات تھیں کہ کوئی گڑ بڑ ہو سکتی تھی۔

یہ بھی کہا گیا کہ پولیس پر پتھراو مظاہرین کی طرف سے کیا گیا جس کے ردعمل میں گرفتاریاں کی گئیں۔ یہ بھی کہا گیا کہ جلد ہی میڈیا کو یہ بھی بتا دیا جائے گا کہ مظاہرین پر ڈنڈے برسانے والا کون تھا اور یہ خبر شاید حیران کن ہو۔ اس حیران کن خبر کا اب بھی انتظار ہے اور یہ بھی ابھی تک معلوم نہ ہو سکا کہ منہ ڈھانپ کر اسلام آباد سے مارچ میں شامل ہونیوالے وہ افراد کون تھے۔ وفاقی وزراء نے تمام خواتین اور بچوں کی فوری رہائی کی نوید بھی سنائی لیکن میڈیا اور سوشل میڈیا کے ذریعے بعد میں جو حقائق سامنے آتے رہے وہ وفاقی حکومت کے ذمہ داروں کے دعووں کے برعکس تھے۔ بلوچ مظاہرین پر پولیس ایکشن کے خلاف کئی اطراف سے سخت مذمت کی گئی، احتجاج بھی ہوئے جس کے بعد گرفتار کیے گئے مظاہرین کی رہائی اور لانگ مارچ کے شرکاء سے مذاکرات کا سلسلہ شروع ہوا جس کیلئے گونر بلوچستان کو بھی بلایا گیا۔ بلوچستان کا مسئلہ بڑا گھمبیر ہے۔ ایک طرف گمشدہ افراد کا معاملہ ہے تو دوسری طرف دہشت گردی کے واقعات ہیں کہ تھمنے کا نام نہیں لیتے۔ 

بلوچستان کی محرومیوں اور ریاست کی طرف سے ماضی کی غلطیوں سے دہشت گردی کو جوڑا جاتا ہے جن کا مداوا کیا جانا چاہیے اور جس کے لیے تمام سٹیک ہولڈرز کو مل بیٹھ کر بلوچستان میں امن اور ترقی و خوشحالی کیلئے متفقہ پلان تیار کرنا چاہیے۔ البتہ ماضی کی غلطیوں کی وجہ سے علیحدگی پسند دہشت گرد گروپوں اور اُن کے جرائم کو کوئی جواز فراہم نہیں کیا جا سکتا۔ بلوچستان کی محرومی کے نام پر یہ علیحدگی پسند دہشت گرد گروپس آئے دن فوج، ایف سی، سیکورٹی اداروں کے افراد کے علاوہ بلوچستان میں کام کی غرض سے گئے پنجاب سے تعلق رکھنے والے غریب مزدوروں تک کو نشانہ بناتے رہتے ہیں۔ بلوچستان میں اعلیٰ تعلیمی ادارے، بہترین ہسپتال بننے چاہئیں لیکن بلوچستان کے عوام کو یہ بات سمجھانے کی ضرورت ہے کہ وہ کون ہیں جو ڈاکٹروں اور استادوں تک کو بلوچوں کے حقوق کے نام پر قتل کرتے ہیں۔ 

گمشدہ افراد کے معاملہ کا کوئی حل نکالنا چاہیے جس کیلئے ماضی میں سوچ بچار بھی ہوتی رہی لیکن عملی طور پر کچھ نہ ہوا۔ بلوچستان کے عوام کو خوشحال کریں وہاں کرپشن کا خاتمہ کریں تاکہ عوام کا پیسہ عوام پر خرچ ہو، اُن کی جائز شکایات اور مطالبات کو اچھے طریقےسے ��نیں اور اُن کا حل نکالیں، اُنہیں تسلی دیں، اُن کی امید بنیں۔ جو پر امن ہیں جو سی��سی جدوجہد پر یقین رکھتے ہیں اُن کی حوصلہ افزائی کریں۔ لیکن اگر پر امن احتجاج کرنے والوں کو گرفتار کیا جائے گا اور اُن پر تشدد اسلام آباد میں ہو گا تو پھر اس سے تو علیحدگی پسند دہشت گرد گروپس ہی فائدہ اُٹھائیں گے۔

انصار عباسی

بشکریہ روزنامہ جنگ

[ghelgheli]

re: the question of "iranian" solidarity—we cannot forget that after jina amini's murder, every more mainstream diaspora source spread the farsi name she was legally forced to have and the use of her name was suppressed not only domestically but internationally by dismissive "iranian"/persian feminists who did not recognize that the very slogan they were using (women life freedom) had long already and originally been a kurdish liberation chant. many, maybe even most of the people who ever heard of the protests and the unrest still do not know or understand the significance of the fact that the most violence has occurred, as it always does, in kurdistan and baluchistan. the legacy of broad-based "iranian" "support" will always be erasure of the imperial/colonial question, as well as the appropriation of an imperialist police murder of a minoritized subject for the sake of the hegemonic feminism of the core, so long as ethnostatebuilding continues. apply this to the present situation accordingly.

[beardedmrbean]

Iran has for the first time reported that more than 300 people have died in over two months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody.

The Islamic republic has deployed state security forces against what it labels "riots" that broke out after the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian died on September 16, three days after her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran's dress code for women.

"Everyone in the country has been affected by the death of this lady," said Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in a video published by the Mehr news agency.

"I don't have the latest figures, but I think we have had perhaps more than 300 martyrs and people killed," among them some of "the best sons of the country", said Hajizadeh, head of the Guards' aerospace division.

The toll includes those who have taken to the streets as well as dozens of police, troops and IRGC militia who have died in clashes with demonstrators or who were killed elsewhere.

The latest official death toll is much closer to the figure of at least 416 people "killed in the suppression of protests in Iran" published by the Oslo-based non-government group Iran Human Rights.

The group says its toll includes those killed in violence related to the Amini protests and in distinct unrest in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Thousands arrested over protests, judiciary says

Thousands of Iranians and around 40 foreigners have been arrested and more than 2,000 people have been charged, according to judicial authorities.

Among these, six have been sentenced to death, with their appeals set to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that overthrew the monarchy, Iranian law requires all women to wear modest dress and a hijab head covering that conceals their hair, rules enforced by morality police squads that patrol public places.

Over the past two decades, however, many women, especially in Tehran and other major cities, have shown more of their hair, before the rules were tightened again -- a flashpoint issue in the protests.

Iran has blamed its enemies for the civil unrest, pointing at the United States, other Western powers and Israel, as well as exiled Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups based in northern Iraq whom it has hit with repeated missiles and drone strikes.

Amid the heightened tensions, Iran's national football team will play the US side at the World Cup in Qatar from 1900 GMT Tuesday -- a match seen as highly political between the countries that have had no diplomatic relations since 1980.

Iran's judicial authorities Tuesday announced the release of more than 1,100 detainees in 20 provinces, including protesters, following Iran's World Cup win Friday against Wales, the Mizan Online news agency reported.

[mariacallous]

The escalating wave of protests shaking Iran since Sept. 17 isn’t the first time the country’s theocratic regime has faced mass unrest. However, the current upheavals are exceptional in scope and they show no signs of slowing down. The protests—which followed the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman under custody of the morality police—aren’t confined to Tehran and other cities in the Iranian heartland but have engulfed remote border provinces as well. Within the provinces, demonstrations are taking place outside the capital cities in dozens of locations. Industrial workers and bazaar shopkeepers—important constituencies for the regime—have joined in as well. In another departure from past unrest, protesters have been fighting back against and even targeting police and security forces, who have killed hundreds of protesters. Over the weekend, Tehran’s notorious Evin prison was on fire with gunshots heard and several reported deaths. As it continues to intensify, this wave of demonstrations may pose the most formidable challenge to the regime since the immediate aftermath of Ayatollah Khomeini taking power in 1979.

Perhaps the most important aspect to the current uprising is the major role played by Iran’s ethnic minorities. According to BBC News, security forces have targeted and killed a disproportionate number of minority protesters, with a significant concentration of deaths in Baluchistan and the Caspian region in northwest Iran. Security forces perpetrated an outright massacre in Zahedan, a city near the border with Pakistan largely populated by Baluchs. On Sept. 30, regime forces killed over 80 Zahedan residents as they were leaving Friday prayers. Security forces wore traditional Baluch dress to avoid detection before opening fire on the worshippers. That this massacre was perpetrated on the Baluch minority went unmentioned in many Western media reports. Despite the massacre, the Baluchs held more anti-regime protests after prayers.

Iran’s history of ethnic grievances—especially in the non-Persian provinces dominated by Tehran—adds additional fuel to a highly combustible mix, and the regime’s harsh crackdown in Zahedan and elsewhere suggests that the regime is aware of this. Iran’s multiethnic nature is also an important part of Iranian politics, and it’s a source of potential upheaval that has been largely left out of debates outside Iran. Western experts and commentators tend to look at Iran through the eyes of its Persian elite, just like the West has long looked at Russia through the imperial eye of Moscow with little space for Ukrainian views, let alone Dagestani or Tatar ones. We ignore these realities—and the potential for internal conflict and disintegration—at our peril.

Non-Persian ethnic minorities—Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Baluchs, and dozens more—make up more than half of Iran’s population, and they dominate vast regions of the country outside the Persian heartland that surrounds Tehran. Most of these minorities live in the border provinces and share ties with co-ethnics in neighboring states, such as Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan. Tehran forbids minorities to educate their children or receive government services in their native languages, but even so, according to Iranian government data, 40 percent of the country’s citizens aren’t even fluent in the Persian language. The official media and school textbooks often mock Iran’s minorities and employ racist tropes. Compared to the Persian-dominated center, Iran’s ethnic minorities face severe hardships—including poverty, poor access to government services, environmental degradation, and water shortages—likely reinforcing their sense of discrimination and depravation. Minorities experience higher rates of incarceration and execution. Activists and cultural figures who campaign for language and cultural rights are frequently arrested and convicted of national security crimes.

As anti-regime activity continues to progress, the role of the ethnic minorities will play an increasingly important role. The regime knows that many of the Persians dominating the Iranian opposition might hate the regime, but they hate the idea of losing control over the provinces even more. Tehran is already trying to appeal to Persian nationalist sentiment to try and split the opposition, stating that only the current government can keep control of the provinces. In playing the ethnic card, media and social media accounts linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps have published maps of Iran broken up into ethnic provinces, warning the Persian nationalist opposition what could happen if the regime falls. Tehran’s missile strikes against Kurds in Iraq, which killed 13 people, were likely an attempt to tar-brush a homegrown uprising among Iranian Kurds as foreign interference. The regime is also trying to pit groups against each other, like Kurds and Azerbaijanis, who have longstanding disputes over land, water, and other resources.

Many Western journalists reporting on the protests seem to assume that since both Persians and non-Persians are calling for the end of the regime, they are united in their goals and that there is therefore no ethnicity-based challenge to the mullahs. These observers might remember that Russians, Ukrainians, Balts, Georgians, and others were also aligned in supporting the fall of the Soviet Union. But as soon as Moscow’s hold on its subjects was weakened, many of these groups pursued their national agenda, with local bonds of ethnicity, language, and culture stronger than the imperial center that once held its various conquered peoples together. Like Russia, Iran has its own imperial history, of which one legacy is the multiethnic tapestry spread across the map of Iran. And just like Western analysts largely ignored the imperial aspect of Moscow’s policies, Western observers are now largely ignoring the ethnic component of Tehran’s rule. Should the regime topple, there is no guarantee that the various groups will see their future with Tehran.

In recent years, confrontation between Iran’s ethnic minorities and the ruling regime has been on the rise. The violence is reciprocal: The regime targets ethnic minorities and vice versa. Since 2017, there has been an uptick in attacks on government targets, including the army and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Most of the attacks occur in largely non-Persian regions, including Sistan-Baluchistan, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, and West Azerbaijan. Baluch, Arab, and Kurd groups frequently strike Iranian forces stationed on the country’s borders. For instance, in October 2018, a Baluch group abducted 12 security personnel in Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan. Kurdish insurgents have conducted attacks on Iranian soldiers and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members.

In Iran’s border provinces, the personal security of the police and security service members is under direct threat. In the provinces, police officers and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps troops live in the towns they preside over, where they are less anonymous than in Tehran or other large cities. Local activists in many locations have made direct threats to police and security service members, warning of personal retribution if they harm the demonstrators. From abroad, opposition media has published the pictures and personal details of various local security officials participating in attacks against protesters, threatening the officers with retribution in hopes of intimidating government forces from further violence. In November 2021, Ahwaz Arab militants killed Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Col. Hadi Kanani, one of the main perpetrators of the deadly crackdowns against Ahwaz demonstrators in November 2019 and July 2021. According to Ahwaz activists in Iran, Kanani had been personally involved in the investigations and torture of Ahwaz political prisoners.

Significantly, the current wave of anti-regime unrest is taking place in provinces that have rarely witnessed anti-government demonstrations since the consolidation of the Islamic revolution in the early 1980s. This includes not just Baluchistan on the Pakistani border, but the Caspian Sea provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan, where the dominant ethnic groups are Gilaks, Mazandaranis, and Turkmens, respectively. In recent decades, the regime could count on the passivity of these provinces, even as anti-regime activity emerged in Tehran and other locations. Not this time.

Iran’s ethnic minorities could have a supersized impact on the success of anti-regime activity. Many of Iran’s most important strategic locations are located in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. Iran’s main oil and natural gas production—and its major export ports—are in Khuzestan, where over half the population is ethnically Arab, with a long history of attempts at self-rule, in addition to a large Lur community. Iran’s strategic Chabahar Port lies in a Baluch majority area, and anti-regime activity in the port city has already created instability there.

If the regime collapses or loses the ability to control the provinces, elements of some of the ethnic groups could try to establish self-rule. This would not be new: It happened during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when some of the major non-Persian ethnic groups—including Kurds, Turkmens, and Arabs—attempted to break away from Iran after the departure of the Shah, and the Azerbaijanis attempted to establish autonomy. The current regime and any potential replacement will oppose any change in Iran’s borders. In contrast to Moscow, which allowed most of the republics to go their own way after the Soviet collapse, the Iranian opposition cannot even agree on allowing minorities to teach their mother languages in schools, let alone have self-rule. That paves the way toward violent struggle should the regime collapse, affecting every state that borders Iran and leading to large-scale emigration to Europe and elsewhere. The United States, Europe, and Iran’s neighbors should keep a close eye on the relationship between the regime and Iran’s minorities—and prepare for a number of potential outcomes.

[rjzimmerman]

Iranian authorities arrested nine conservationists last year who were tracking the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

Excerpt from this Washington Post story:

An Iranian court sentenced six conservationists to prison Wednesday on charges of collaborating with an “enemy state” — namely, the United States — rights activists and former colleagues said.

The defendants, part of a group of eight imprisoned environmentalists, were arrested and jailed by the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps early last year for their work tracking the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah. The trial sparked outrage among conservationists worldwide.

The sentences were handed down in secret Wednesday and without the presence of defense lawyers, according to a Human Rights Watch researcher and a former environmental official. The verdicts were announced to the prisoners, who relayed the information to family members, relatives said.

The verdicts came as Iran grappled with a wave of socioeconomic unrest and a government-ordered Internet blackout. More than 100 protesters may have been killed since anti-government demonstrations began Friday, Amnesty International said.

The eight defendants all belonged to the nonprofit Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, which used wildlife camera traps to track the Asiatic cheetah in remote corners of Iran’s central plateau. The basic cameras, used by wildlife researchers worldwide, snap short-range images when triggered by a mammal’s movement near a game trail or watering hole.

They were key, however, to wildlife protection efforts in Iran, scientists said. In addition to the Asiatic cheetah, Iran is home to rare species such as Persian leopards and Baluchistan bears. It also suffers from widespread environmental degradation, including desertification, air pollution and diversity loss.

Iranian authorities accused the conservationists of using the U.S.-manufactured camera models to collect classified military information. The Revolutionary Guard, a powerful security branch, has stepped up its persecution of scientific and scholarly researchers in Iran, activists and analyst say.

[reportwire]

Iranians mark 'Bloody Friday' as thousands protest in southeast flashpoint | CNN

Iranians mark ‘Bloody Friday’ as thousands protest in southeast flashpoint | CNN

Thousands of Iranians protested in the restive southeast on Friday to mark a Sept. 30 crackdown by security forces known as “Bloody Friday” as the country’s clerical rulers battled persistent nationwide unrest. Amnesty International said security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people in September after firing at protesters in Zahedan, capital of flashpoint Sistan-Baluchistan province.…

[rivaltimes]

New unrest during protests in Iran

New unrest during protests in Iran

Archive – Police in Iran – ROUZBEH FOULADI / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO Iranian security forces have used live ammunition and tear gas this Wednesday against protesters who have taken to the streets again in the southeast of the country, according to eyewitnesses. The demonstrations have returned again to cities such as Zahedan, in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan, with many shops closed for…

[irvinenewshq]

Protests proceed throughout Iran as rights group stories 185 deaths together with 19 minors

Protests ignited by the demise of a younger lady in police custody continued throughout Iran on Sunday regardless of a fierce crackdown by the authorities, as a human rights group stated not less than 185 folks, together with kids, had been killed within the unrest, Pattern stories citing Al Arabiya. Demonstrations that started on September 17 on the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in her Kurdish city of Saqez, have turned into the largest challenges to Iran’s clerical leaders in years, with protesters calling for the downfall of Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “At the least 185 folks, together with not less than 19 kids, have been killed within the nationwide protests throughout Iran. The very best quantity of killings occurred in Sistan and Baluchistan province with half the recorded quantity,” stated the Norway-based Iran Human Rights in a assertion on Saturday. Denying use of stay bullets, authorities have described the protests as a plot by Iran’s foes together with the US, accusing armed dissidents – amongst others – of violence through which at least 20 members of the safety forces have been reported killed. Movies shared on social media confirmed protests continued in dozens of cities throughout Iran early Sunday with lots of of excessive college ladies and college college students becoming a member of in regardless of the usage of tear gasoline, golf equipment, and in lots of circumstances stay ammunition by the safety forces, based on rights teams. A video posted on Twitter by the broadly adopted activist 1500 tasvir confirmed a person shouting “don’t hit my spouse, she is pregnant,” whereas making an attempt to guard her from a dozen riot police beating the couple within the metropolis of Rafsanjan. Different movies confirmed protesters blocking some streets in southern Tehran. Some posts on social media stated outlets had been closed in a number of cities after a name by activists for a mass strike. Reuters couldn’t confirm the movies and posts. Particulars of casualties have trickled out slowly, partly due to the restrictions on the web imposed by the authorities. Amini was arrested in Tehran on September 13 for sporting “inappropriate apparel.” She died three days later at a Tehran hospital. A state coroner’s report on Saturday stated Amini had died attributable to pre-existing medical circumstances. Her father has held the police answerable for her demise with the household lawyer saying “respectable docs” imagine she was overwhelmed whereas in custody. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[tappersia]

For many years, one thing that has always kept many travelers from coming to Iran has been safety concerns. Many people — mostly Westerners — have always thought of Iran as one of the most dangerous places on earth. But why everyone seems to be worried about traveling to Iran? Is the situation in the country really that bad? In this article, I will try to explain what Iran really looks like and why the media has been trying to fool everyone for many years.

The Islamic revolution of 1979 marked a major shift in Iran’s tourism industry. For many years, Iran was considered (and advertised) as an unwelcoming destination for travelers. As a program to attract more tourists to the country, citizens of more than 70 countries can now get a Visa on Arrival (VOA) in a number of ports of entry. The word is spreading every day on the internet and social media and people are sharing their experiences in Iran, most of which are overwhelmingly positive.

Travel Risk Map 2019

According to the 2019 Travel Risk Map, launched by global risk experts International SOS in collaboration with Control Risks, Iran is listed in the “Low Risk” category. The majority of European countries are also falling in this category. According to their website, this report uses a number of factors like political violence (including terrorism, insurgency, politically motivated unrest and war), social unrest (including sectarian, communal and ethnic violence) as well as violent and petty crime to determine the risk of traveling to every country in the world. Other factors, such as the robustness of the transport infrastructure, the state of industrial relations, the effectiveness of the security and emergency services and the country’s susceptibility to natural disasters are also considered. You can check their website for more details on what every risk category is defined.

People, People, People

Iran is definitely one of the most misunderstood countries in the world. For the same reason, many travelers are surprised to see how the country and its people are completely different from their expectations. Many frequent travelers find Iran safer than most other destinations. Almost every solo female traveler I have talked to has confirmed that they feel more comfortable walking alone at night in the cities of Iran compared to some European countries.

When you first visit Iran, one of the first things you might notice is the amount of attention locals give to you as a tourist. Most Iranians tend to show a lot of respect towards foreigners. It is very common to be invited for a cup of tea or even for a dinner at their home. In fact, making friends in Iran is definitely what will make your experience unique.

The Money Problem

International credit and debit cards do not work in Iran, which means you need to have cash with you at all times. Needless to say, this might create some inconvenience knowing you have to carry all your money with you in cash. Therefore, Iran Tourist Card is a convenient solution for your financial needs in Iran.

Female Travelers

The Middle East is known for being a man-dominated region. In Iran, however, things are a bit different. Women’s presence in the society, especially in bigger cities, is much more noticeable compared to the other middle eastern countries. We have a comprehensive article regarding the safety of Iran for solo female travelers. In general, Iran is considered a safe destination for female travelers. Iranian police are very strict about any sort of misbehavior.

The Scariest Thing About Iran

you’ve heard about it before: we Iranians are not good drivers (and we don’t seem to be sorry about it!). A simple rule to keep in mind is that cars are the rulers of the roads. Do not expect drivers to stop the car or slow down for you to cross the street, even on a crosswalk. If it seems to be a challenge for you to cross the streets, always wait for another pedestrian to cross and follow them. Also, if you do decide to cross the street by yourself, make sure that the driver has acknowledged your presence.

If we take another look at the Travel Risk Map for road safety, we can see that Iran is unfortunately displayed as a “Very High Risk” destination when it comes to road safety. The major roads can be generally categorized as safe and well-maintained, but it is usually the careless drivers and the quality of most cars which make the roads unsafe. The good news is that bus drivers face a lot more strict rules and are usually more careful with their driving.

If a taxi driver is going too fast, try to ask them to slow down, this will hopefully work in most cases. To ask them, you can politely say: “Yavāshtar, lotfan!” which means “Slow down, please!”.

Traveling to “Prohibited” Regions

safety of traveling to the Western regions like Kurdistan or Sistan va Baluchistan region in the East has been always questioned by travelers wanting to visit more non-touristy areas of the country. While some countries ask their passport holders not to travel to parts of these regions, there are still adventurers who choose to explore their beauty. Visiting these areas is an extraordinary experience.

In Western regions, you meet Kurds and Lurs who are famous for their hospitality and fascinating culture which for a good reason, they’re all proud of it. As a matter of fact, many tourists choose to travel to the Western regions like Kurdistan, though it is advised by some sources not to travel within the 50 kilometers range of the Iran-Iraq border.

For a long time, Sistan va Baluchistan region has not been a popular destination among Iranians and foreigners. Although, this is changing quickly as some cities like Chabahar have attracted many Iranian tourists in recent years. Speaking of Chabahar, this part of the region is generally considered as safe as other parts of the country as the government has been investing in creating a tax-free trade zone. However, if you’re planning to travel to the little-known parts of the region, I recommend traveling with a local guide. Being close to Pakistan and Afghanistan borders and the police struggle with smugglers has kept many travelers from visiting the region. As a result, many stunning parts of the region are yet to be discovered.

Terrorist Threats in Iran

This might be obvious to anyone who has a little understanding of Iran, but for those who don’t: any concern regarding being targeted in a terrorist attack in Iran is complete nonsense. I have seen some resources listing Iran as a high-risk country in terms of terrorist attacks, and this is a big lie.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, violent crimes against tourists are almost unheard of in Iran. But like any other destination, you should always keep an eye on your belongings, mostly in crowded places like bazaars or metro stations where pickpocketing can be a problem.

[majalla-english-blog]

Death Toll Rises to 70 in Pakistan Election Rally Attack- Baluchistan Health Minister

Death Toll Rises to 70 in Pakistan Election Rally Attack- Baluchistan Health Minister

Supporters of ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif take part in a march towards the airport ahead of the arrival of Nawaz from London, in rally led by Shahbaz Sharif, Nawaz’s younger brother and the head of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-L) party, in Lahore on July 13, 2018. (Getty Images)

QUETTA, Pakistan- A suicide bomber killed 70 people at an election rally in southwestern Pakistan…

[mideastsoccer]

Smugglers’ protests: Iran succumbs to trauma and demons

By James M. Dorsey

Recent clashes in the Iranian province of Sistan and Balochistan highlight Iran’s vulnerabilities as well as its inability to overcome trauma and control its demons.

The clashes sparked by a crackdown on cross border fuel smuggling to neighbouring Pakistan achieved what past US and Saudi machinations failed to accomplish: ethnic unrest in a strategic, impoverished and long restive majority Sunni province in predominantly Shiite Iran.

The clashes in February erupted after Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed two smugglers, prompting protesters to storm the governor’s office in the city of Saravan and burn police cars. Security forces dispersed crowds with tear gas, closed off roads and temporarily shut down Internet connections to prevent the protests from spreading.

True to form, the Guards denied responsibility.

Tasnim News Agency, a privately owned news outlet with close ties to the Guards, reported that the shots that killed the smugglers had been fired from the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Tasnim reported several attacks in the days before and after the clashes that targeted the Guards as well as Intelligence Ministry officials in Sistan and Balochistan.

The Guards’ response constitutes more than a tired effort to evade responsibility. It is rooted in a deep-seated belief that Iran’s foremost enemies, the United States and Saudi Arabia, are bent on overthrowing the regime in Tehran and have repeatedly attempted to foment unrest using Pakistani Baluchistan as a launching pad.

While Iran has reason to fear attempts to destabilize the country, it often fails to separate the wheat from the chafe. As a result, the government frequently responds to crises in ways that threaten to aggravate rather than solve problems.

The Guards’ assertion that the shots were fired from Pakistan suggests that an investigation into the incident announced by the foreign ministry is unlikely to draw a different conclusion.

A precarious calm has returned to Sistan and Balochistan with the help of a prominent local Sunni cleric, Shaikh Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, who used the opportunity to call on the government to apply the law and tackle the region’s social and economic problems.

Seemingly rejecting the Guards’ version of events, Mr. Ismaeelzahi insisted that “the officers who made mistakes should be punished according to the law.”

The Guard’s version was also countered by the province’s deputy governor, Mohamad Hadi Marashi, who asserted that security forces “were forced to resort to shooting” because their “honour” was at risk due to fuel porters’ “attempts to enter the (Guards’) base,” stone-throwing, and other “destructive actions.”

Mr. Ismaeelzahi went on to say that the “selling of fuel is not a crime or smuggling, rather it’s one of the means of income through which thousands of families make a living… Governments have a duty to plan for the sustenance of people so that no one is forced to choose hazardous jobs.”

For residents of Sistan and Balochistan, one of Iran’s provinces with the highest rate of unemployment, smuggling is often the only way to put bread on the table. Anger has been mounting at the killing of scores of smugglers each year by security forces.

Some 120 people, many believed to be Baloch nationalists, are on death row in the central prison of the provincial capital of Zahedan. Five have been executed since January.

The risk smugglers run is enhanced by the fact that Baloch nationalists operating from Pakistan have repeatedly launched attacks on the Iranian side of the border. Iran boasts some of the world’s lowest gas prices.

Iranian authorities had hoped that fuel hikes in November 2019 that sparked mass anti-government protests in which at least 225 people were killed by security forces would dampen the incentive for smuggling. Officials and smugglers say it did not.

"Increasing the price of gasoline does not affect fuel smuggling because the main fuel that is transported is diesel,” said Ahmed, a smuggler. “When I sit behind the wheel of a van full of diesel, I feel like I am carrying a big bomb, but I have no other way of escaping unemployment and earning a living."

Iranian concerns about the porous border with Pakistan are not unfounded.

Senior US and Saudi officials played in 2017 publicly with the idea of pressuring Iran by supporting potential unrest among Iranian ethnic minorities, including Balochis, who straddle both sides of the Iranian-Pakistan border.

Pakistani militants asserted at the time that Saudi funds were pouring into religious seminaries in Balochistan that were operated by anti-Shia and anti-Iranian groups.

Intermittent efforts to foster unrest in Iran using Pakistani Baluchistan as a base date back to the presidency of George W. Bush.

Men like Mr. Ismaeelzahi suggest that investment in cross-border trade would serve to pacify Iran’s restive southeast, improve standards of living, and allow Iran to circumvent US sanctions.

“Borders are important potentials. Our country has a wide border with some Arab countries in the southeast by sea and it shares borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan by land… Exchange of goods at borders is one of the most important ways of living and employing for people,” Mr. Ismaeelzahi said.

Acting on his advice would require Iranian authorities to expand their fixation on border security to include human security. That would mean adopting a prism that is not exclusively framed by concern about real and imagined external plots and machinations.

With the government preoccupied with a tug of war with US President Joe Biden about who goes first in reviving the moribund 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program and elections scheduled in the next months, that is likely to prove a tall order.

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute as well as an Honorary Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Eye on ISIS

[dailynewsvideo]

Syria president and first lady test positive for COVID-19

Syria president and first lady test positive for COVID-19

PARIS: After Iran last month imposed an Internet shutdown lasting several days in a southeastern region during a rare upsurge of unrest, activists say the government is now using the tactic repeatedly when protests erupt.Rights groups say at least 10 people were killed when security forces opened fire on fuel porters around Saravan in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan on February 22, prompting…

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Social media footage showed security forces firing into crowds, four weeks after dozens were killed in protests there over allegations a teenage girl was raped by a senior policeman. State media said one person was killed and 14 injured in Friday's violence.Iran has also been rocked by wider protests sparked by the death of a young Kurdish woman in police custody. The unrest is the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic.On Friday, crowds in Zahedan, capital of the Sistan Baluchistan province, took to the streets despite the announcement that two senior police officials had been sacked over the deadly 30 September clampdown. Video sent to the BBC Persian Service shows floors of buildings washed with blood, as protesters shout "Death to Khamenei" - a reference to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. One video shows one of the latest casualties, apparently a child."They fired at a 12-year-old," one man shouts as another strokes the cheek of the boy shot dead

[stirfriedoctopus]

IndiaVsChina

A person's character can be seen by looking at his friends, but to see a person's strength, you need to look at his enemies.

I often hear - 'India's biggest enemy is Pakistan'... and I'm like... Seriously? Are you kidding? C'mon... We deserve much better. Also because, for instance, the Lion doesn't bother about the enmity with a puppy. Although the pup might often try to bite the Lion when the Lion is not alert, but ideally there is no comparison. *Just an example, meaning no offence to the common Pakistani citizens.

To begin with, a minute of silence for all those who believe in "Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai". Even after China keeps on slapping India whenever it gets a chance to, still if there are people thinking the above phrase to be true, a serious medication is needed. Moreover, we keep on hearing that we have a threat from China to the east and Pakistan to the west. But this too seems just a nomenclature now. Its actually China to the east and China to the west. And soon enough we might witness an era of Chinese colonization in Asia, starting from the Pakistan occupied state of Baluchistan. Why calling occupied? Google it :)

Most of us know about the Indo-China war of 1962, in which we suffered a defeat at the hands of the Chinese. Not really a military defeat, but a political one. Not many people know about the Indo-China war of 1967. This was a humiliating defeat for the Chinese and India gained a much needed moral victory.  Its the reason I admire the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi.  Looking at the positives, she was really good with her neighborhood policy and internal security. Hers was the time when the RAW used to be at its prime.

Coming back to China, its a country which has a deep respect for history. The Chinese understood after 1967 that they cannot directly lock horns with India. And its almost around 53 years, not a single bullet has been fired across the Indo-China border. Reports of skirmish or standoffs might come from the LAC, like the present day scenario in Ladakh. But kicks and punches are not the way how armies fight. So, has China been quiet since 1967? Perhaps not. China has been really good at praising on the face and stabbing in the back. Be it on Kashmir, terrorism or any other matter, in the UN, or any global platforms, China has continuously posed hurdles for India. On the other hand it has been an all weather ally for Pakistan. CPEC, weapons, funds and what not. Moreover, China has been funding and supporting the communist ideology in India and even tried its best to create unrest in our North Eastern states to standstill any development. Now with a communist government in Nepal, its also trying to blemish the historical Indo-Nepal relationship. Even in trade, we stand at a deficit of around $65 billion.

Coming to the good part now. With a strong government in power which also has a strong diplomatic relations with other countries, we can anticipate a very minimal impact of the Chinese plots against our country. But yes, there are measures to be taken. We do need somewhat aggressive policy towards China.  And if the time comes, we too have a lot of arsenal in our bag.  Vietnam, Tibet, Taiwan, Africa, HongKo....Oops...perhaps I shouldn't go deeper. In conclusion, all we need to ensure is that we do not remain so defensive that we fail to keep pace with China in becoming the new superpower of the world. As the wise proverb says, “seeking revenge is not the best option always but neither so is forgiving every time”. 

[mypakistan]

بلوچستان کا مقدمہ......

Baluchistan political situation and unrest

[risingpakistan]

بلوچستان کا مقدمہ......

Baluchistan political situation and unrest