Mawlana Fazl-ur-Rahman Kohi, the headmaster of Anwar al-Haramain Islamic seminary and the Friday Imam of Pashamag in Sarbaz (Iranian Balochistan) went on a hunger strike in Vakil Abad prison in Mashhad.
According to an audio file of Mawlana Fazl-ur-Rahman Kohi which has gone viral on the internet, he stated “refusing his parole despite the fact that a year has passed since this release” as the reason for his hunger strike.
In this audio file, Mawlana Fazl-ur-Rahman Kohi stated that the efforts made by Ulama to get the officials to agree to parole were unsuccessful, and he announced that he will go on a hunger strike from Wednesday (November 16, 2022).
The Sunni public figure has named “agreement to parole” and “revocation of the ban on religious activities” as his most important demands, and emphasized that he will continue his hunger strike until these two demands are fulfilled.
It should be said Mawlana Fazl-ur-Rahman Kohi was summoned to the Special Clergy Court of Mashhad in Nov. 28, 2019 and was arrested, and later sentenced to six years and four months in prison.
Many scholars and social activists reacted to the news and asked immediate release of Mawlana Kohi.
Shaikh Abdol-Hamid, the Friday Imam of Sunnis in Zahedan said on Nov. 18: “Mawlana Kohi was arrested in connection with the 2018 protests, and he is one of the political prisoners and sympathetic scholars of the country, he should be released. He has gone on strike because his parole has not been approved. People demand his release, too.”