Zahedan
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Zahedan ( Balochi and fa, , ' ) is a city and capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province,
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. At the 2016 census, its population was 587,730. The city was the site of a deadly crackdown in October 2022, with dozens citizens killed by pro-governmental forces. Over 90 people were killed. Two senior police officials were fired in the aftermath of the crackdown. On 28 October, there were protests in Zahedan and security forces fired on protestors, killing 1 and injuring 14. On 3 November 2022, the Shi'i cleric and Khamenei loyalist
Sajjad Shahraki Sajjad is a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, Imam Sajjad (Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin), 4th Imam of Shia Islam * Syed Sajjad Haider Yaldram (1880–1943), Urdu short stor ...
was assassinated in Zahedan. The next day, there were widespread protests in the city and
Revolutionary Guards The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
and other armed forces fired on protestors.


Name

The original name of the city was Duzzap (Persian: ''Duzdab'', meaning "Water Stolen"), which it had received due to the abrupt floods into the valley. The name was later changed to Zahedan (Persian for "hermits") during
Reza Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi ( fa, رضا شاه پهلوی; ; originally Reza Khan (); 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian Officer (armed forces), military officer, politician (who served as Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), ...
's visit in 1929.


History

Mention of Zahedan first appears in sources in August 1849. However, the city first truly started to grow during the early 20th-century. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
it became the westernmost terminal of the
Zahedan railway station Zahedan railway station ( fa, ایستگاه راه آهن زاهدان) is located in Zahedan, Iran. It serves as the terminus for the Quetta–Taftan Railway Line and Bam-Zahedan railway. It also serves as the break of gauge between Pakistan ...
, which reached as far as
Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...
in the northern part of what was then British Baluchistan.


Geography

Zahedan is connected by rail to nearby Pakistan and is near to
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. It is about south of the
tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...
of the three countries and at an altitude of above sea level and from the Iranian capital of
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.


Demographics

Although the surrounding area has many ancient sites, Zahedan itself developed mainly in the 20th century. Before being chosen as the provincial administrative center in the 1930s, Zahedan was a small village. Its population reached 17,500 by 1956 and increased more than fivefold to 93,000 by 1976. After 1980, large numbers of refugees fleeing the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
helped triple the population of Zahedan to more than 281,000 by 1986, a number which has since doubled again.


Education

Zahedan is the home of the Islamic Azad University of Zahedan, the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences and the University of Sistan and Baluchestan. Besides, the largest Sunni seminary, Darululoom Zahedan, is located in Zahedan. There are some other religious Sunni schools in the city and the vicinity.


Sports

In April 2008 the 70 billion IRR (about 2.5 million
USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
) Zahedan Stadium was built with a seating capacity of 15,000 people. It was inaugurated on 18 April 2008 with a friendly football game between ''Honarmandan'' (Artists) and a local team.


Economy

Zahedan is the main economic center of the region and home to many small- and medium-scale industries. Its main products include cotton textiles, woven and hand-knotted rugs, ceramics, processed foods, livestock feed, processed hides, milled rice, brick, reed mats and baskets.


Transport

Zahedan is served by
Zahedan International Airport Zahedan Airport ( fa, فرودگاه بین المللی زاهدان, Balochi: زاہدان بالی پَٹ) is an international airport located in 6 kilometers northeast of the city of Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, in south of Iran ...
. Highway 95 links Zahedan to
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and
Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
in the north and the port of Bandar Chabahar on the
Sea of Oman The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman ( ar, خليج عمان ''khalīj ʿumān''; fa, دریای عمان ''daryâ-ye omân''), also known as Gulf of Makran or Sea of Makran ( ar, خلیج مکران ''khalīj makrān''; fa, دریای مکرا ...
in the south, and Highway 84 to the Pakistani city of
Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...
in the east and to
Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...
in the west. For decades the
broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
(Indian subcontinent system) railway exists from Zahedan station to/from Quetta's station in Pakistan, the Quetta–Taftan Railway Line. Beyond this, west, a
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
line was completed from Zahedan to
Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...
linking the city with the rest of the Iranian rail network. This flowed from a 18 May 2007 MOU for rail co-operation (of Pakistan and Iran) under which the line was to be completed by December 2008. It was completed with an opening ceremony on 19 June 2009. This means that Zahedan hosts the
break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...
between the Islamic Republic of Iran Railway's standard gauge tracks of the
Trans-Iranian Railway The Trans-Iranian Railway ( fa, راه‌آهن سراسری ایران) was a major railway building project started in Pahlavi Iran in 1927 and completed in 1938, under the direction of the then-Iranian monarch Reza Shah. It was entirely built ...
and
Pakistan Railway Pakistan Railways ( ur, ) is the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan. Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger servi ...
's broad gauge aforementioned.


Chabahar–Zahedan railway

In May 2016, during Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
's trip to Iran, agreement was signed to develop two terminals and five berths at
Port of Chabahar Chabahar Port ( fa, بندر چابهار) is a seaport in Chabahar located in southeastern Iran, on the Gulf of Oman. It serves as Iran's only oceanic port, and consists of two separate ports named ''Shahid Mosa Kalantari, Kalantari'' and ''Shahi ...
and to build a new railway between Chabahar and Zahedan, as part of North–South Transport Corridor, by
Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
's public sector unit
Ircon International Ircon International, or Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON), is an Indian engineering & construction corporation, specialized in transport infrastructure. The public sector undertaking was established in 1976, by the Indian Railways und ...
. This proposal is under study and consideration, a via Kerman connection to the port of Chabahar. In July 2016, India began shipping US$150 million of tracks to Chabahar to build the US$1.6 billion line, for which India pledged additional US$400 million and Iran has also allocated US$125 million in December 2016, thus taking the total allocation to US$575 million (out of US$1.6 billion needed) by the end of 2016.


Climate

Zahedan has a
hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''BWh'') with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is very low, and mostly falls in winter.


See also

* 2007 Zahedan bombings * 2009 Zahedan bombings * July 2010 Zahedan bombings *
2019 Khash–Zahedan suicide bombing On February 13, 2019, a suicide bombing on the Khash–Zahedan road in Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran killed at least 27 Revolutionary Guards and wounded another 13. It was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iran in years. The Sa ...


Notes


References


Sources

* *


External links

*
Municipality of Zahedan

Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Official Website of the Sunni Community of Iran, Sunnionline
{{Authority control Populated places in Zahedan County Cities in Sistan and Baluchestan Province Iranian provincial capitals