Zahedan : City Profile

Zahedan is a city at the far east of Iran in the Sistan and Baluchistan province with a population of half a million . Being the province centre and being just 42 km far from the tripont of the boarders of Iran , Afghanistan and Pakistan it has quite an importance. It is connected to the Pakistani boarder by road and the distance being just an hours drive . Trade between Iran and Pakistan occurs from here by road and also by train .

I managed to visit this city in September of 2011 for a day during which I tried to understand the culture of the city and the Baloch people and also took quite a few pictures which I will be sharing .
Zahedan is connected to the rest of Iran by train . It took me round about 24 hours to reach Zahedan from Tehran ,the train being very comfortable and very cheap , the ticket no more than a mere 20 dollars.

 View of Baluchistan from the train

Zahedan Railway Station


The majority of people in Zahedan are Balochis . Though Iran has some Baloch people (around a  million) , the majority of Balochi people reside across the neighboring Pakistan . What most fascintated me about the Baloch people in Zahedan were that they had many similarities with the Pakistani culture . You could frequently see people walking around in shalwar qamees , the national dress of Pakistan .

An old man offering prayers in a park

As I wandered around the city I felt that Zahedan was very different from other Iranian cities , while other Iranian cities like Tabriz and Karaj have a very lively nightlife , people are out in the parks and in the big shopping malls round about the whole nights , here the air seemed quite different , though it is very lively in the evenings ,the city would literally shut off at about nine at night , which to be frank wasn't in accord to my taste . I guess this they have also acquired from across the border .
Rest the city was quite OK , the people surprisingly friendly and ready to help .


I stayed in Gilan Hotel for the night.

Gilan Hotel. Zahedan , Iran.

The city has some big mosques and has a condsiderable population of Sunnis as well as Shias.

A mosque in Zahedan.

The city was quite clean and had some very modern buldings and places .

Esteghlal hotel is the best hotel in Zahedan and most Iranian tourists , officials and international tourists stay here.

Esteghlal Grand Hotel , Zahedan

I had my lunch at Vali-Asr restaurant which was quite good in quality and and the prices were quite cheap for the place.

Other photos that I took in Zahedan

There are massive residential and commercial projects going around just outside the city .

Iranian malt , in the background is Samand (Iranian car) in Zahedan

By :Muhammad Saeed 
    

Iran Unviels the Captured US drone : Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel

 Iran has shown footage of the most advanced US reconnaissance drone which was downed by the Iranian armys electronic wing in the eastern part of the Islamic Republic earlier this week.The US has violated International law by entering Iranian airspace. In a letter to Swiss ambassador to Tehran Iran denounced the growing US provocative and secret moves against the Islamic Republic.
"The move is in violation of all international rules and regulations and runs counter to regional and international peace and security. Surely the responsibility for the illegal move lies with the US authorities," it added.
   Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh Thursday evening appeared in a TV report to explain how Iranian forces downed the United States' highly advanced radar-evading spy drone last week
"Recently, our collected intelligence and precise electronic monitoring revealed that this aircraft intended to infiltrate our country's airspace for spying missions," the General said, and added, "After it entered the Eastern parts of the country, this aircraft fell into the trap of our armed forces and was downed in Iran with minimum damage."

PressTV has shown footage of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone that Iranian electronic warfare troops brought down intact.

Press TVs footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd4vGszQhJw

BBC

The RQ 170 Sentinel is United States most advanced stealth UAV and is among the highly sensitive surveillance platform in the CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses.
The RQ-170 has been used by the CIA for highly sensitive missions into other nations' airspace, including months of surveillance of the compound in Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden was hiding before he was killed in a May raid by Special Operations forces.
Current and former US defense officials said even the US military cannot use such a highly sophisticated stealth aircraft as it is in relatively short supply and is only flown by the CIA.
Iran announced on Sunday that its defense forces downed the aircraft through a sophisticated cyberattack.
The RQ-170 has special coatings and a batwing shape designed to help it penetrate other nations' air defenses undetected. The existence of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin, has been known since 2009, when a model was photographed at the main US airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan.




Latest Updates:
IRGC Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh provided these details
“After the aircraft's entry into the country's eastern [air]space, it fell in the electronic ambush of the Iranian Armed Forces and was brought to the ground with minimum damage [caused to it],”

“The recently-collected intelligence and precision electronic surveillance have made it clear that the drone aimed to infiltrate our country's airspace and conduct espionage [activities],”

Meanwhile, Iran has announced that it intended to carry out reverse engineering on the stealth aircraft, which is also known as the Beast of Kandahar and is similar in design to a US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber.