On Tuesday, October 5, on the outskirts of Zahedan, municipal agents demolished another home, leaving an entire family without shelter.
According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, the destroyed home is one of several like it that the municipality claims has been built on non-residential premises, despite clear preliminary real estate contracts to the contrary. One of the officials involved reportedly claimed that the municipality was permitted by a judicial order to demolish these houses.
“Four municipal agents demolished our only shelter,” a woman says in a video that was posted on social media following the incident. “They threw me down to the ground and forced my husband to get into their car. This home was my only shelter. From all these houses in the city, why did they demolish my home? We built this house hardly and we couldn’t afford even to finish the walls…It is not fair that I have to become homeless.”
“If these pieces of land do not have any legal document, why do they let the real estate’s sell these houses?” another citizen asked. “Why the officials don’t do their job properly so that people don’t fall into the mistake to purchase these houses. Why don’t they prevent people from construction in the first place? Unfortunately, it is their mismanagement that gets us into trouble.”
An urban expert also commented on the event, suggesting an ulterior incentive for authorities to “condemn” such residences.
“Province officials have to hinder those who in some ways grab these great pieces of land,” the expert said. “They claim ownership of these lands by fencing and sell the parcels illegally to poor people for low prices.”