10 May 2023 :
(May 10, 2013) - Between 29 April and 8 May, 118 people were executed in Iran, including 2 women.
Every year, during the holy month of Ramadan (this year from March 22 to April 21), executions are traditionally suspended. It is normal that at the end of Ramadan there is a sharp increase in executions, , as if they had to make up for lost time. Never before, however, had such a high level been reached, 118 executions in 10 days, almost 12 a day.
An extraordinarily high percentage of these executions concerned men and women of the Baluch ethnic group: 24 men and 2 women.
The Baluchi, or Baloch, are the predominant ethnic group living in the Balochistan region (Baluchistan), an arid region of south-western Asia, politically divided between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
The inhabitants of this region are about 15 million, divided 60% between Pakistan, 25% Iran, and the remainder in Afghanistan, in the Kandahar area. They are predominantly Sunni Muslims. The most important cities of the Iranian region administratively called 'Sistan and Baluchistan' are Zahedan and Zabol. Although the Iranian region, which overall has about 2.5 million inhabitants, is known for its wealth of minerals, gas, oil, gold and marine resources, Iranian Baluchistan remains one of the poorest and least developed provinces of Iran. Due to the "economic" hostility of the central government, the Baluchi have developed a habit of international drug trafficking. From this point of view, the Baluchi are comparable to the Kurdish minorities, who are also deliberately kept in underdeveloped conditions in the region they occupy on the border between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Kurds, through the 'Kolbar' phenomenon, practice the smuggling of goods and petroleum products (not drugs) on the mountainous paths of their region, and each year they suffer several dozen killings by the Iranian border patrols, who try to also stem them using anti-personnel mines.
