At least 41 people were killed by Iranian security forces in city, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights Over the weekend, Iran shut down communication services in Zahedan and sealed its border with Pakistan QUETTA: Fighting after deadly clashes in Iran’s Zahedan has subsided and moved to the city’s outskirts amid a heavy deployment of troops, Pakistanis who have returned from the southeastern Iranian town said on Tuesday, as cross-border movement resumed. Violence broke out in the capital of Sistan and Balochistan province during Friday prayers, after worshipers in the city’s Makki Mosque called for a protest over the rape of a 15-year-old girl, allegedly by a local military commander. At least 41 people were killed by Iranian security forces, according to data from the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights released on Sunday. The administration of Sistan and Balochistan has cited a death toll of 19. The number is feared to be higher, as local activists and news outlets report new casualties every day. Over the weekend, Iran shut down communication services in Zahedan and surrounding areas and sealed its border with Pakistan at Taftan, a city about 90 kilometers from Zahedan. A Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency official has confirmed to Arab News that the crossing reopened on Monday. Khalil Ahmed, 27, a businessman from Nokundi, a Pakistani city on the border, returned from Rutuk, a small town adjacent to Zahedan, on Monday night. Ahmed was stranded after Iran closed the border. He said that the situation in areas surrounding Zahedan was “grim” and most of their residents feared leaving their houses. “In the day there is silence but at night we heard heavy gunshots,” he told Arab News. “I have seen a heavy presence of Iranian forces in Zahedan and its adjacent towns.” Iran says five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its volunteer force Basiji were killed in Zahedan in what state media described as a “terrorist incident.” An IRGC provincial intelligence chief was among the personnel killed, and his death was claimed by Jaish Al-Adl, a militant group that says it is fighting for the independence of Sistan and Balochistan and greater rights for Baloch people – the main ethnic group in the province. Naveed Ahmed, 32, a Pakistani who owns a shop in Taftan, said that he returned from Zahedan on Monday after spending six days in the city. “Business activities are still closed in the entire Zahedan city after Friday’s clashes, but the fighting between the forces and the protesters has been halted,” he told Arab News. “There were no more clashes in Zahedan city after Friday, but yes some fighting continued between the Iranian forces and separatist groups at the outskirts of Zahedan, because we heard gunshots in the night.” The deaths of security personnel and the provincial IRGC intelligence chief have been a major escalation in the anti-government demonstrations that began in mid-September, triggered by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iranian morality police. Official news agency IRNA quoted IRGC chief Gen. Hossein Salami pledging revenge for the killing of its forces. “We consider revenge for the blood of the IRGC and Basiji martyrs and the people who were victims of the Black Friday crime in Zahedan to be on our agenda,” he said. Ongoing countrywide demonstrations have been the largest manifestation of dissent against the Iranian government in more than a decade. Rallies have spread to all of Iran’s 31 provinces, with ethnic and religious minorities joining in, despite the violent response from authorities. Iran Human Rights estimates that at least 133 people have been killed by security forces since the beginning of the protests — over three times higher than the number reported by Iranian state media.