In what was dubbed as a "fair trial," eleven people with alleged links to Jundallah were hanged in southern Iran on Dec. 20. They were indicted of planning and executing an attack on a mosque last week that killed 39 people. In a span of less than a week, Iranians were quick to administer justice. Jurists and governments in other parts of the world should take inspiration from this speedy justice.
While no one can deny the grossly heinous act of terrorism that they allegedly committed, would not it have been fair if they were given an actual trial? According to an Amnesty International statement, the Iranian regime carried out the hangings as an act of quick retribution. "The Iranian authorities have a responsibility to protect public safety and to bring to justice those who commit crimes, but when doing so they must respect human rights and uphold their obligations under international law," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Apparently, this is not the first time they have been super quick to execute people. Last year, Iranian authorities sent 13 members of the said militant outfit to the gallows just days after they were accused of carrying out an attack. The trials are always supervised by the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran with no assumptions whatsoever of them being fair.
Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, has been involved in a number of attacks but its influence has waned after a crackdown by the Iranian authorities where they executed its leader. United States has also placed the group on terror list after Iran's accused it of funding the outfit. One needs to dig a little deeper to find the real cause of these attacks. Sistan-Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran is the hub of these attacks, hangings, mass arrests, torture, and other human rights violations. Ethnic Balochs are in overwhelming majority in this poorest province of Iran and are at the receiving end of the Iranian regime.
Except for the freedom of religion, Balochs are not much liberated in Pakistan either. The region has seen an active insurgency for the last nine years and the Pakistani intelligence agencies have arrested hundreds of activists and have kept them at secret detention centers. Hundreds of them have also been killed in recent years, mostly while in custody. Pakistani Baloch militants are overtly secular in their approach but their Iranian counterparts have a religious tinge. This is attributed to the fact that the Sunni Balochis in Iran face grave state restrictions in following their religion. There is a possibility that the recent attack was carried out by another group that took its inspiration from Jundallah.
But we will never know about the real culprit given the reputation of Iran's justice system. In fact, one might see more such hangings in recent weeks as Iran has asked Pakistan to hand over the militants that it thinks are hiding in the country. Amid this execution galore and the mass crackdown on green shirts in not-so-recent past, Iranophiles like Reza Aslan are recommending that the US should cooperate with Iran in busting terrorism.