Iranian Police Arrest 150 Afghans in Hormozgan Province

Iranian media outlets reported that the country’s police raided the eastern areas of Hormozgan province on Wednesday to "clean up the areas contaminated by fuel smuggling".

According to Iranian media outlets, 150 Afghan citizens have been arrested during the police raid.

Ali Akbar Javidan, the police chief of Hormozgan province told the Fars News Agency, close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, "In this operation, 550 fuel tanks with an amount of 300,000 litres were discovered, 80 motor pumps for fuel collection, five vehicles carrying fuel, five stolen and unauthorised motorcycles were discovered, 50 kilometers of fuel pipelines from tanks to the coast were destroyed, and 150 unauthorised foreigners were arrested."

Iranian authorities have not revealed the identity of the arrested individuals yet.

The campaign of Baloch activists also reported that the military forces, in addition to destroying and setting fire to fuel tanks, destroyed several houses in the attack on Kolahi Minab village in Hormozgan province.

A well-informed source told the Baloch activists campaign that these forces raided this village along with a special military unit and they didn’t allow movement of residents for hours.

According to this report, the lack of work and income has caused the residents of this village and neighbouring villages to be engaged in fuel delivery. Since the authorities of the Iranian government consider fuel delivery as smuggling, people engaged in fuel delivery are subjected to severe repression, and every year hundreds of them are killed and wounded by the Iranian military forces.