Sangar Incident

The Sangar Incident (Pasdani: واقعه سنگر; Vagheah-yi Sangar; Rahelian: حادثة سانغار; Ḥādiṯa al-Sangah) was a foiled plot to overthrow the Zorasani government under State President Ekrem Dalan and First Minister Izzat al-Din Kahala in mid-2004. The conspiracy involved a group of junior officers housed at the Sangar Army and Air Force Base and was stopped pre-emptively by the Central Command Council.

The plot came at a time of growing social and economic upheaval as a result of the neo-liberal and secular reforms of the XX-XX government. The success of the previous XX-XX reformist government in pushing the military out of politics had fostered tensions, which were deepened by the military’s sense that the successive liberal governments were violating the foundational principles and values of the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics. In late 2003, the plotters led by Major Sadiollah Khodapavar began planning for the overthrow of the government and the instituting of a military dictatorship. They progressed as far as securing forged documents authorising the deployment of military forces in and around the capital, Zahedan. The plot was foiled by the successful surveilling of the plotters by the Inter-Services Discipline Office, who were arrested on 24 May 2004, all were subsequently sentenced to death for sedition by a Special Military Tribunal.

The foiled plot marked a short-lived improvement in civil-military relations. However, the plot stands as a precursor to the Turfan, a period of violent civil and social unrest that resulted in the electoral defeat of the XX-XX government and the liberal-reformist movement in Zorasani politics. The Tufan ultimately resulted in the restoration of entrenched military domination over politics and a return to radical ideological governance by civilian hardliners in alliance with the military.