TEHRAN -- President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Saturday that terrorist acts will never shake the resolve of Iran’s security forces, after a senior female police officer was martyred in the southeastern city of Zahedan, the latest in a series of terrorist attacks targeting law enforcement in the border region.
Colonel Nosrat Eftekhari, deputy cultural and social commander of the Sistan and Baluchestan provincial police force, was martyred in the Cheshmeh Ziarat area of Zahedan. The terrorist attack marked the second assassination of an Iranian security official within days.
“Such criminal acts will never shake the determination of the forces protecting security in guarding the lives, calm and comfort of the people, and the protection of citizens’ security and the confrontation with terrorism and agents of insecurity will continue decisively,” Pezeshkian said in his message.
The president offered condolences to Eftekhari’s family, police commanders and personnel, and the people of Sistan and Baluchestan, describing her assassination as “a bitter example of these inhumane crimes.”
“Blind and terrorist acts aimed at creating insecurity, spreading violence and disrupting people’s calm will achieve nothing but shedding innocent blood and exposing the criminal nature of their perpetrators,” Pezeshkian said.
He ordered responsible agencies to urgently and seriously investigate the various dimensions of the crime and identify its perpetrators and masterminds as quickly as possible.
Judiciary Chief Gholamhussein Mohseni Ejei also issued a message of condolence, praising Eftekhari’s service in “less privileged regions” and describing her assassination as evidence that security work in Iran is “inseparably linked to the hearts of the people.”
“May God unite this glory-creating woman in the field of people-centered security with distinguished martyrs and grant her a place at the blessed table of Hazrat Siddiqa Tahera (Fatima al-Zahra),” Ejei said.
In a separate incident, the governor of Faryab in southern Kerman province announced that the terrorist responsible for the assassination of Major Mehdi Jamshidi, a police officer in the city, was killed during a rapid security operation on Saturday evening.
Seyed Abolhassan Husseini said that following the “terrorist and blind act” by unidentified armed individuals in central Faryab, which led to Jamshidi’s martyrdom, the identification and decisive confrontation with those responsible was immediately placed on the agenda of the security council and police and intelligence forces.
“With complex intelligence measures, field monitoring and round-the-clock tracking, the hideout and escape route of the main perpetrator were identified, and officers entered the operation with judicial coordination,” Husseini said.
Jamshidi was shot on Thursday evening, while passing through the center of Faryab with his son, according to IRNA. The assailants fled the scene.
Sistan and Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has seen repeated clashes between security forces and foreign-backed takfiri terrorists in recent years.