|
Iran Focus
 Tehran, Iran,
Jun. 20 – A man has been hanged in a prison in the south-eastern province
of Sistan-va-Baluchistan for killing an army
soldier and injuring an army officer, the official news agency IRNA
reported on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Gholam Qaljaee,
was hanged in prison in the city of Zabol.
Among the charges he faced was taking part in armed clashes with agents of Iran’s
State Security Forces, the paramilitary police.
Sistan-va-Baluchistan
Province is home to Baluchis, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority.
Iran
has witnessed escalating unrest since 2005 in areas populated by Baluchis, who complain of discriminatory and repressive
policies by the theocratic regime.
In recent months, Iranian authorities have stepped up executions in the
restive province in what many Baluchis believe is
a response to a spate of attacks by dissidents on government and security
officials.
A Baluchi group opposed to the government of Iran calling itself Jondollah
has claimed responsibility for a string of armed attacks on government
officials including an ambush in March on a government convoy, which left
twenty-two security and provincial officials dead and at least seven,
including the governor of the city of Zahedan, critically wounded.
|