Tehran (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – An attack carried out by the Sunni Jaish al-Adl Baluch outfit on a courthouse in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province resulted in at least five deaths and 13 injuries, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA.
Iranian media reported that several judiciary officials and security personnel were killed or injured when the attackers stormed the judges’ compartments. Three attackers were also killed in the following clashes with security forces, and a mother and child were among those killed by the attackers who threw a hand grenade into the facility in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan.
A statement was also posted on its Telegram account, Jaish al-Adl took responsibility for the attack and urged
“all civilians to immediately evacuate the area of clashes for their safety”.
Why is Sistan-Baluchestan a regular battleground?
Sistan-Baluchestan province, located on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, is one of the provinces in Iran with a predominantly Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, and, to be sure, they are Baluch who possess a long-standing tradition of articulating statements about social and economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
The province is typically affected by conflicts involving security forces and armed groups, which include both Sunni militant groups and separatists seeking independence and autonomy of the Baluch people in Iran. The Iranian government has claimed that some of these armed groups have links to outside organisations that conduct smuggling operations or conduct insurgencies against the Iranian state.
How does this attack compare to previous assaults?
In the span of the last decade, there have been many well-established attacks similar to the courthouse attack in the province of Sistan-Baluchestan, primarily by groups such as Jaish al-Adl. Other than the courthouse attack, Jaish al-Adl also conducted a major attack in Sistan-Baluchestan province, Iran, in October 2024.
