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On October 29, 2022, Adl Network, the official media outlet of Jaish Al-Adl ("Army of Justice"), issued a statement condemning the "crimes," committed by the Iranian regime during the ongoing protests. The statement called on security personnel to abandon the regime and on protesters to stay united.[1]
In a Farsi-language statement, the Salafi jihadi group which is linked to Al-Qaeda and operates mainly in southeastern Iran, where a significant population of Sunni Baluchis resides, denounced "the successive crimes against the Baluch people of the velayat-e faqih [Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist] regime,"[2] vowing to avenge the victims.
The statement appears to be in response to October 28 violence in Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan Province, where Iranian forces attacked protesters with live fire after Friday prayers, killing at least seven people.[3]
Message To Protesters
Denying any involvement in the October 28 "massacre," the statement said that the regime is trying to blame it on the group by describing the perpetrators as a "Takfiri secessionist group."
Addressing the protesters, the statement urged them to stay united and to continue to advance their "revolution," noting that the day when the regime will fall is getting closer.
Message To Basij
The statement went on to address members of the Basij, a paramilitary organization operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), particularly those from Baluchistan province: "Separate your ranks from this regime, and the regime's [authority] in Baluchistan will not last a week without you... We do not ask you to join our ranks, just hand over your weapon honorably to the government and do not participate in the murder of your brothers and sisters."
Along with the statement, the Adl Network released a video showing one of its fighters, whose face was digitally blurred, reading the statement.
[1] October 29, 2022.
[2] Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's governing system has been based on the religious and political Islamic Shi'ite doctrine of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist.
[3] Independent.co.uk, October 29, 2022.
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