After years of underrepresentation and repression at the hands of the regime, Iran's Sunni population is playing an important role in the current protests.
By Brian Williams March 15, 2021
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets and occupied government offices in Saravan, a city in southeastern Iran, Feb. 23 in response to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killing of at least 10 sukhtbars (fuel carriers) and injuring six more the day before.
The sukhtbars eke out a living taking diesel fuel from the Baluchistan region of Iran, one of the most impoverished parts of the country, across the border into Pakistan. The price of fuel in Iran is government subsidized at a price substantially lower than it sells for in Pakistan. The trade is large, estimated to be almost 20% of the diesel fuel supply there.