Iranian border guards opened fire on a group of Afghan migrants crossing into Sistan-Baluchestan province, killing six people and wounding five others, the Baluch rights group Haalvsh reported on Tuesday.
Haalvsh, which monitors events in the southeastern province, said around 120 Afghan nationals, including women, children and elderly people, came under fire on September 8 in the border district of Golshan.
The group said Iranian forces used both heavy and light weapons, including a DShK heavy machine gun, without issuing a warning.
According to Haalvsh, the bodies of five of the dead were left at the scene, and one of the wounded lost a leg after being hit by heavy gunfire. It also released the names of those hospitalized in Saravan, adding that the condition of three was critical.
The rights group said about 40 others were detained by border forces.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) described the shooting as “a violation of fundamental human rights,” citing the direct fire on unarmed migrants, including women and children, and the use of heavy weapons. HRANA said the failure to provide timely medical treatment and the collective arrests also breached international law.
Haalvshadded that similar incidents have occurred before. In October 2024, Iranian border forces fired on groups of Afghan migrants, leaving dozens dead, injured or missing.
According to HRANA’s annual monitoring, 484 civilians in Iran were shot by security forces in 2024, with 163 killed and 321 wounded.
The reported incident comes amid an intensified crackdown on Afghan migrants in Iran. Late in August, an Interior Ministry official said Tehran expelled 1.8 million undocumented migrants in the past year, most of them Afghans, and intends to remove at least 800,000 more under a government plan.
The United Nations has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as deportations accelerate. UN experts urged Iran and Pakistan in July to halt forced returns, saying nearly 1.9 million Afghans had been sent back since the start of 2025.
Iran hosts millions of Afghan nationals, many of whom fled decades of war and instability.
The groups, ranging from teachers’ and oil workers’ councils to environmental and cultural associations, issued the statement in the days leading up to the third anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16, which ignited months of nationwide unrest.
“The struggle will not stop,” the statement said, describing the protests as the product of “more than four decades of resistance.”
The groups called for three central demands: “an end to gender apartheid,guaranteed public welfare, and unconditional political, social and cultural freedoms.”
The signatories said the 2022 protests, which began after the 22-year-old Kurdish woman’s arrest by morality police for allegedly violating hijab rules and her consequent death, embodied wider grievances over poverty, corruption, repression and inequality.
“The uprising of Woman, Life, Freedom arose as a deeper cry against poverty, economic pressure, discrimination, repression and humiliation,” the statement read.
The groups cited a list of crises they said were rooted in “the authoritarian, discriminatory and despotic structure of political Islam.”
These included “a deep wealth gap, gender discrimination, concentration of power in the hands of a small ruling minority, systematic corruption, mass unemployment, structural poverty, forced migration, environmental destruction and organized repression.”
The statement also linked Iran’s foreign and security policies to domestic hardship. “The specter of war over society is constantly increasing, the result of warmongering policies, proxy forces and insistence on nuclear armament, which have drained people’s lives,” it said.
The organizations said protests over inflation, utility shortages, lifestyle restrictions, political prisoners and executions were all part of the same continuum of struggle.
“No reform from above can heal these wounds... The true force of this revolution is in the streets, in strikes, in the solidarity of workers, women, youth, teachers, retirees, students and marginalized groups,” they wrote.
They voiced demands for the release of political prisoners, an end to executions and for social justice. “We declare loudly: no power from above, no behind-the-scenes compromise and no imposed order has the right to decide for the people,” the statement said.
The anniversary comes as Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion has called for rallies in more than 20 cities worldwide, including Toronto, Berlin, London and Sydney, between September 13 and 16 to mark Amini’s death. He said the demonstrations would commemorate those killed or imprisoned since 2022 and demand accountability from Iranian authorities.
Rights groups say at least 551 people, including women and children, were killed during the protests that followed Amini’s death, while thousands were arrested. Amnesty International has described Iran’s crackdown as crimes against humanity, and a UN fact-finding mission has said systemic repression, particularly against women and girls, continues.
“The revolution is not only for a change of political structure,” the Iranian groups’ statement concluded. “It is to end centuries of oppression, exploitation and backwardness, and to open a path where welfare, freedom and equality are a daily reality.”
In a video interview, Safavi, a political science professor at Tehran University, repeatedly referred to the possibility of Khamenei’s killing, describing such scenarios as “disruptive and hostile acts” that Israel might pursue independently of US approval.
“If the issue of access to the number one or number two person in the country arises, they will carry it out at any cost, even at the risk of war,” Safavi said. “If Israel does this without America’s permission, the US will face a fait accompli, and Iran will be forced to think through its response.”
Former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said last week that eliminating Khamenei should be part of Israel’s plan in any future conflict. Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, have also issued warnings aimed at the Supreme Leader, amid heightened rhetoric between Tehran and Tel Aviv following their 12-day war in June.
Safavi said US President Donald Trump had once claimed he stopped Israeli plans to target Khamenei during the June conflict. Trump later boasted he had “saved” the Iranian leader from what he called a “very disgraceful and humiliating death.”
While Safavi said war with Israel remained possible, he warned of what he called a more dangerous scenario of “gradual humiliation and erosion” if Iran did not respond to escalating threats.
“The worst scenario is not war. The worst scenario is being worn down,” he said.
Safavi also voiced rare criticism of Khamenei’s long-held stance on Washington, urging Iran to pursue what he called “comprehensive negotiations” with the United States that go beyond uranium enrichment.
“The nuclear deal was a single-issue agreement, and that is why it failed,” he said. “We need comprehensive talks with America.”
Rahim-Safavi, his father and Khamenei’s longtime military adviser, has himself said another war with Israel may be inevitable, but could be the last. “We soldiers always plan for the worst-case scenario,” he said in August.
