At least eleven Baloch citizens were gunned down in Iran’s Isfahan province during a joint security operation, in what rights groups are condemning as a targeted extrajudicial massacre under the guise of counter-narcotics enforcement.
Independent Iranian media have reported that the victims all members of the Qanbarzehi tribe and residents of Zahedan were killed following a violent ambush led by Iranian police units from Isfahan, South Khorasan, and Yazd provinces. The operation, carried out on Friday, July 25, reportedly involved both ground forces and aerial support.
According to Halvash, a regional news outlet focused on Iran’s eastern borderlands, the victims were traveling in three vehicles and two motorcycles when security forces launched a sudden strike. While Iranian officials later confirmed the killings, they labeled the victims as “armed criminals and drug traffickers” a claim that remains unsubstantiated and has drawn skepticism from rights observers.
No independent investigation has been conducted, and the government has yet to release the identities of the deceased or provide evidence justifying the deadly use of force. The incident has reignited international concern over Iran’s escalating campaign of repression against its Baloch minority long subjected to systemic discrimination, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and state-sanctioned violence. Sistan and Baluchestan, home to the country’s largest Baloch population, remains one of Iran’s most militarized and impoverished regions.
“This was not law enforcement it was a state-sanctioned execution carried out with impunity,” said a Baloch human rights defender, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Iran continues to criminalize ethnicity, and the price is paid in blood.”
Over the past year, rights organizations have documented a sharp increase in lethal security raids across Baloch regions, often without warrants, court orders, or transparency. Many of these operations are cloaked in anti-narcotics rhetoric widely viewed as a pretext for ethnic profiling and collective punishment.
The Isfahan killings mark a dangerous escalation and further deepen the divide between the Iranian state and its marginalized ethnic minorities. Activists warn that continued violence without accountability will only inflame unrest, erode trust, and destabilize already fragile regions.
Iran’s security institutions have yet to comment on whether any legal proceedings will follow, or whether the families of the victims will be notified or compensated. Rights groups are demanding an urgent, independent international investigation into the Isfahan killings, calling on the Iranian government to end its cycle of impunity and repression against the Baloch people.
Without transparency, justice, and a commitment to human rights, observers warn that Iran risks pushing its Baloch population further to the margins fueling resentment, radicalization, and long-term instability across its eastern frontier.
