TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian police have arrested an Afghan man suspected of stabbing 10 other farm workers after a land dispute, Iranian state media reported Monday. The atrocity in a remote village in southeastern Iran is a rare event of its kind in the Islamic Republic.
Four Iranians and six Afghans were killed on Sunday, and a farm worker was injured in Sunday’s atrocity and is being treated in hospital, the official Islamic Republic of Iran news agency said. The suspect is reported to be insane.
Iran’s decades-long drought has led to increased disputes over water resources and land with easier access to water. Hunting rifles are the only weapons Iranians are allowed to legally possess.
Violence has escalated in Iran in recent years as the country’s economic conditions deteriorated due to soaring inflation and rising unemployment due to tough U.S. sanctions.
In May, an employee fired by Iran’s largest state-owned financial group shot three people and wounded five at his former workplace in western Iran before turning the gun on himself.
In 2016, a 26-year-old man shot and killed 10 relatives and wounded four others.
