Two policemen and four attackers were killed in Iran’s restive southeast near Pakistan The militants used grenades to blast open the gates of the police station DUBAI/TEHRAN: Two police officers and four attackers were killed on Saturday when gunmen and suicide bombers stormed a police station in the mostly Sunni city of Zahedan in Iran’s restive southeast, state television reported. The grenade attack and ensuing firefight at a police station was the latest violence to hit Sistan-Baluchistan province. Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, was scene of some of the bloodiest protests during a wave of nationwide unrest last year triggered by the death of a young Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police. “Four unidentified armed individuals attacked and entered police station Number 16,” state broadcaster IRIB reported, citing the province’s deputy head of security Alireza Marhamati. The attackers used grenades to blast open the gates of the police station, and an exchange of fire occurred, said Marhamati. A militant group operating in the area called Jaish Al-Adl, or Army of Justice — formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group — claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack in a social media post, saying it was in retaliation for the deaths of protesters killed by security forces on Sept. 30, 2022. It said the targeted police station, which is located near Zahedan’s Makki Mosque, was “one of the main perpetrators of the Bloody Friday calamity in Zahedan.” State television said “all four terrorists” had died in the raid. Cleric Molavi Abdol Hamid, the head of Makki Mosque and an influential leader of Sistan-Baluchistan’s Sunni minority, denounced the attack on police. “We insist on maintaining the ... security of the country,” Abdol Hamid said in a statement. Amnesty International said security forces killed at least 66 people in the Sept. 30 crackdown on demonstrators. Authorities sacked Zahedan’s police commander and a police station chief afterwards, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent a delegation to negotiate with critical Sunni Baluch clerics. Public anger grew in Zahedan in the lead up to the Sept. 30 crackdown following allegations circulated on social media about the rape of a local teenage girl by a police officer. Molavi Abdolhamid, Iran’s most prominent Sunni cleric and a long-time critic of Iran’s Shiite leaders, condemned the attack on the police station, urging Baluchistan residents to avoid actions that would lead to a breakdown in security. Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, is one of Iran’s poorest provinces and a major drug trafficking route. Human rights groups say the Baluch minority, estimated to number up to 2 million people, has faced discrimination and repression for decades. (With Reuters and AFP)