QUETTA: Ongoing anti-government protests and a state crackdown against demonstrators in Iran have sparked fear among Pakistani communities living in frontier towns worried for the safety of their families across the border.
Iran’s clerical rulers have faced the biggest protests in years since September when Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police who enforce strict dress codes.
Protests that erupted during Amini’s funeral in Saqez, her home town in Kurdistan, have since spread to all of Iran’s 31 provinces, and continue to date despite a violent response from the government.
Some of the deadliest unrest has taken place in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province that borders Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan. Rights groups say security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people on September 30 after firing at protesters in Zahedan, the capital of the flashpoint province.
On that day, Pakistani businessman Asif Burhanzai was among dozens of families who struggled to reach relatives in Zahedan to enquire about their safety.
“Majority of Baloch tribes on the Pakistani side of the border have family relations in Iran,” Burhanzai, who runs a wholesale business in the Pakistani border town of Taftan, told Arab News, saying it took him all day to confirm that his family members in Zahedan were safe.
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. (REUTERS)
Rehmatullah Notezai, who transports Iranian oil into Pakistan through border crossings in Taftan, said he was worried for his aunt who lives in Zahedan with her children.
“By God, we are worried for our relatives in Iran and completely oblivious of in what conditions they have been living in,” he told Arab News. “We don’t have contact with them for the past few weeks and we always pray for their safety and security.”
More than 500 protesters have been killed across Iran as of Dec. 18, according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), while over 100 people have reportedly died in Sistan-Baluchistan alone.
This UGC image posted on Twitter reportedly on October 26, 2022 shows an unveiled woman standing on top of a vehicle as thousands make their way towards Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Mahsa Amini's home town in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, to mark 40 days since her death, defying heightened security measures as part of a bloody crackdown on women-led protests. (AFP)
Burhanzai said his own work travels to Iran were also in jeopardy now due to the ongoing protests.
“I used to stay in Iran for more than 15 days [a month], but after the nationwide protest, my family members are worried because of my travel,” he said.
“They are afraid that the situation might turn violent in Sistan-Balochistan province.”
