Iran reports officer killed in southeast, executes two men over January police deaths

An Iranian police officer was killed by unidentified attackers in the country’s southeast, police said on Tuesday, November 3. In a separate announcement, the judiciary said two men convicted of involvement in the deaths of four police officers during January protests in central Iran had been executed.

State television carried a police statement identifying the officer killed in Saravan county, in Sistan-Baluchistan province, as Third Lieutenant Hojat Vafakardeh of the Criminal Investigation Police. The statement said police and security forces were working to identify and arrest the attackers. Responsibility for the shooting was not immediately clear.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, is among Iran’s poorest provinces. Security forces have repeatedly clashed there with armed groups, including separatist factions. The province has a large Baluch population, most of whom follow Sunni Islam in a country where Shia Muslims form the majority.

Several other security incidents have been reported in the region. On Monday, Mehr news agency reported an attack on a vehicle transporting engineers and contractors, attributing it to terrorist groups. The Revolutionary Guards’ local headquarters also said on Monday that its forces had ambushed a group before it could launch an operation, killing one member and arresting several others.

The intelligence ministry said on Thursday that it had broken up four operational cells belonging to what it described as a terrorist-takfiri group and arrested 16 people. It also reported detaining three others accused of passing information to centers it described as American and Zionist, without elaborating. Two security personnel were killed in separate gun attacks in the region in mid-October.

The men executed on Tuesday were identified by the judiciary’s Mizan Online website as Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi. They had been convicted in connection with the killing of four police officers in Isfahan in January 2026. Mizan said the executions followed a legal review and appeals by the defendants, with the Supreme Court upholding both death sentences.

According to the judiciary, the two men were armed, present at the scene and among those chiefly responsible for the killings. It said their death sentences were imposed for moharebeh, or waging war against God, and corruption on earth through actions against national security. Two other men, Alireza Sepahi and Alireza Raissi, were executed in early October for involvement in the same case.

The protests began in December over sharply rising foreign currency rates before broadening into demonstrations against the government, reaching their peak on January 8 and 9. Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of instigating the unrest. Official figures put the death toll from the clashes at more than 3,000, including police and security personnel, while rights organizations abroad have reported higher totals.

Executions in Iran have increased sharply since the US-Israel war on Iran began in late February. According to Amnesty International, only China carries out more executions than Iran.