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.