TEHRAN: Four Iranian policemen were killed on Sunday after attackers fired on a patrol in the restive south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, near the border with Pakistan.

“Three policemen were martyred in a terrorist attack on a police patrol unit,” state news agency IRNA reported.

A fourth died later after succumbing to his wounds.

The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear.

On July 8, two policemen and four assailants were killed in a grenade and gun battle in the province during an attack later claimed by the Jaish Al Adl group.

In May, five border guards died in clashes with an armed group in Saravan, southeast of Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan.

State media reported at the time that the attack was carried out by “a terrorist group that was seeking to infiltrate the country”, but whose members “fled the scene after suffering injuries”.

In late May, IRNA quoted a police official as saying “Taliban forces” had shot at an Iranian police station in Sistan-Baluchestan. Tehran and Kabul have been arguing over water rights.

Zahedan was also the scene of protests that flared last September, with several deaths, over the alleged rape of a teenage girl by a police officer.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2023