Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired on fuel traders in the Saravan border area on Monday morning after a group of traders protested about not being allowed to transfer fuel across the border with Pakistan, according to the Baloch Campaign, a rights group that monitors human rights violations in Sistan and Balochestan.
“The Iranian authorities should urgently conduct a transparent and impartial investigation into the shootings at the Saravan border,” said Tara Sepehri Far, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The authorities should hold those responsible for wrongdoing to account, appropriately compensate victims, and ensure that border guards are taking the utmost precautions to respect the right to life and other human rights.”
Fuel traders in Baloch areas, known as sookhtbars, carry untaxed fuel across Iran's borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. People take on the dangerous trade in order to make a living in a part of Iran where economic opportunities are scarce.
The killings prompted protests on Tuesday; in Saravan, hundreds of Balochi protesters stormed the district governor's office.
A day after the protests, some mobile network operators shut down internet access in parts of Sistan and Balochestan province.
"Under international human rights law, Iran has an obligation to ensure that internet-based restrictions are provided by law and are a necessary and proportionate response to a specific security concern," HRW said in their Friday statement. "Officials should not use broad, indiscriminate shutdowns to curtail the flow of information or to harm people’s ability to freely assemble and express political views."
Sepheri Far added that “the international community should press Iranian authorities to immediately lift all restrictions to internet access and act to end such shutdowns in the future”.
