An Iranian cleric shot dead at a Shiite mosque in the city of Zahedan

An Iranian cleric was shot dead in a Shiite mosque in the predominantly Sunni city of Zahedan. The shooting poses a threat of an increase in sectarian turmoil that complicates the administration's efforts to deal with the growing chaos.

The IRNA information office on Thursday, November 3, 2022 gave the cleric's report on his name Sajjad Shahraki.

"A special task force has been created to recognize and arrest some actors," Ahmad Taheri, the police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, was quoted as saying.

Zahedan is the scene of perceived security force violence following widespread protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, in police custody on Sept. 16.

Amnesty International said security forces killed at least 66 people in harsh treatment of demonstrators in Zahedan on September 30.

The ruling faction in Iran's southeastern city removed the police commander and police station chief in connection with the incident.

The disaster in Zahedan is widely assessed, accounting for the most important Sunni cleric who explained that some senior officials in the Shia group counted Ayatullah Ali Khamenei's highest leader as responsible before God.

The nationwide protests, echoed by chants saying Khamenei's death, have been among the boldest hurdles to the country since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Iran blamed foreign opponents and its agents for the protests and accused them of trying to disrupt the country.

Zahedan, near the edge with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the southeast, is home to the Baluch minority of about two million people. According to the human rights line, they have faced discrimination and persecution for decades.

The Sistan-Baluchistan area around Zahedan is the poorest in the country and has become a hotbed of chaos where Iranian security forces have been attacked by Baluch militants.

Iran's forty most important human rights advocates have publicly commented on Iran's Shiite theocracy. They explained that the harsh treatment that has undermined opinion inequality for decades has not returned to success and demonstrators seeking political rule will win.

"The administration is still immersed in fantasy and believes it can press, arrest and kill to smother," several advocates, some domestic and some outside, said in a confession sent to Reuters.

"But the overflow of people at the end will abolish the government because the Divine will is on the side of the people. The voice of the people is the voice of God."

Those in Iran are at risk of being secured with such comments. But the recognition of some advocates is the latest example of how more Iranians are no longer defeated by state fears that have kept them in their lanes for decades.

Among the advocates who signed the confession was Saeid Dehghan, who has been a representative of a double citizen imprisoned in Iran on security-related charges. Another is Giti Pourfazel, who was among the activists jailed for signing an open letter in 2019 that pressured Khamenei to step down. The woman advocate was released in 2021.