"Kilometer-long lines" for fuel in Zahedan have caused people's livelihood problems

Despite the increasing criticism from Friday prayer imams in the cities of Sistan and Baluchestan that the lives of the people of this province are being disrupted due to mismanagement by government officials, new reports from state media indicate that this situation is escalating.

On Monday, the state-run IRNA news agency reported the formation of kilometer-long queues in front of gas stations in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, writing that in this province, drivers are forced to spend at least "three to four hours in these queues" to refuel.

Mohammad Brahui, a truck driver, told IRNA: "I went to the Keshavarz station [a gas station in Zahedan city] at 3 am to get my diesel quota, and after four hours, I am still a long way from the station."

Sistan and Baluchestan Province, with a predominantly Sunni population, is one of the most deprived provinces in Iran, with a high rate of marginalization and health and educational deficiencies.

In this situation, the state-run IRNA news agency, in this report, as well as government officials in their statements, are trying to introduce issues such as "fuel smuggling" and the occurrence of public protests in Zahedan as factors behind the fuel supply shortage in this province.

IRNA claimed that "many of the people in line in front of the station are there only to receive their diesel quota and sell it on the open market."

Mohammad Kohnsal, the regional head of the Zahedan Petroleum Products Distribution Company, also stated that the long lines in front of fuel stations in the city were only due to the "closure of the Be'sat station," which, according to him, was "destroyed" by "rioters" (protesters).

This is while Hossein Modarres Khiabani, the governor of Sistan and Baluchestan, has admitted to the lack of gas stations in the province and said, "The average distance from each gas station to the next one in the country is 40 kilometers," but this average distance in Sistan and Baluchestan is "120 kilometers," which is three times as much.

Mr. Modarres Khiabani emphasized that this shortage of gas stations "has caused people to often wait in long lines to obtain gasoline and diesel fuel."

According to the governor of Sistan and Baluchestan, the Ministry of Oil has used "fuel smuggling" as an excuse for not issuing permits to establish fuel stations in the province, and no progress has been made in establishing CNG stations "due to the lack of competitiveness of this issue and the lack of economic feasibility of investment and acceptance by the private sector."

During the recent protests by a group of people in Zahedan against the rape of a police colonel by a Baloch girl and the death of Mahsa Amini, security forces killed more than 90 people in Zahedan.

Government continues to prioritize Shiite ideological issues in Balochistan

While the province of Sistan and Baluchestan faces numerous problems, including a lack of fuel stations and the prevention of movement of the region's indigenous people through border crossings, government officials have emphasized strengthening the ideological issues of the Islamic Republic by appointing Shiite administrators in this Sunni-dominated province.

In this context, on Sunday, Minister of Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili appointed a teacher from the Zahedan Shiite Seminary as the new director general of the Guidance Department of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, and asked him to "strengthen and support the Cultural Front of the Islamic Revolution" in the province.

While Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, recently claimed that the Islamic Republic has "done everything it can to practically achieve unity" between Sunnis and Shiites, Mawlavi Abdul Samad Sadati, the Friday prayer imam of Saravan city in Sistan and Baluchestan province, said on Friday, October 12, "Unity is not possible without equality, justice, and the elimination of discrimination."

Criticizing the "inefficiency of officials, the imposition of problems on the people, and the disregard for human dignity," he added that the Revolutionary Guard forces, who are in charge of controlling the borders in this province, are preventing the border movement of people in this region who "have an urgent need to travel due to kinship and family ties on the other side of the border."

Also, Mawlavi Abdul Hamid, the Sunni Friday prayer imam of Zahedan, criticized the accusations made by the Islamic Republic authorities against the Sunnis of Sistan and Baluchestan and Kurdistan, saying: "The people of these two regions are accused of separatism, while the Kurds and Baluchis are among the most noble Iranian ethnic groups who have sacrificed their lives to preserve the territorial integrity of the country throughout history, along with other compatriots."

Officials of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly accused opponents and protesters in Sunni-dominated areas of separatism, including during the ongoing protests.

Source: Radio Farda