A Sunni imam was shot dead early Monday in the town of Mirjaveh, in Iran’s restive Sistan and Baluchestan province, according to local authorities. Mohammad Anwar Rigi, the Friday prayer leader and preacher for the town’s Sunni community, was struck by multiple bullets as he made his way to the mosque for dawn prayers. Police said armed men in a car opened fire and then fled the scene; the cleric died of his wounds before he could be taken to hospital.

Iranian officials were quick to condemn the killing. The governor of Mirjaveh described it as a “blind terrorist act” aimed at undermining security and fomenting sectarian division, and promised a thorough investigation. A member of parliament for the region called it a “cowardly terrorist attack by criminal mercenaries.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meanwhile, accused “American-Zionist agents” of carrying out the assassination, a claim that was reported by state-linked media but not accompanied by evidence. No group has yet asserted responsibility.

Rights groups and local sources, however, have offered a sharply different reading. The Baloch Human Rights Documentation Network noted that Rigi had survived a previous attempt on his life in December 2024, and that his appointment as imam in late 2024 had been deeply controversial. He replaced Abdul Qahar Mirbaluchzehi, who was dismissed and detained after expressing solidarity with a prominent Sunni cleric following the deadly 2022 crackdown on protesters in Zahedan. Many residents, the network said, believed the earlier attack was carried out by individuals linked to security agencies, and some now allege the same about Monday’s killing — a claim that remains unverified and which Iranian authorities have not addressed.

The assassination is the latest in a series of violent incidents involving Sunni clerics in the province, which is predominantly Baloch and Sunni, and has long been a flashpoint for both ethnic insurgency and sectarian friction. In November 2022, another prominent Sunni imam, Abdul Wahid Rigi, was kidnapped and found shot dead; Tehran blamed the militant group Jaish al-Adl. Rights organisations, including the Center for Human Rights in Iran, have documented what they describe as a systematic campaign of arrests, pressure, and dismissals targeting Sunni clergy who criticise the state, particularly since the 2022 protests. The investigation into Monday’s killing is ongoing, and authorities have urged the public to rely only on official statements.