Sunni Cleric Kidnapped, Killed In Restive Sistan-Baluchestan

Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolvahed (Abdulwahid) Rigi (right) during a meeting with the visiting representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November 2022
Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolvahed (Abdulwahid) Rigi (right) during a meeting with the visiting representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November 2022

A prominent Sunni cleric and prayer leader of a mosque in the city of Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan province has been killed. 

Molavi Abdolvahed (Abdulwahid) Rigi was kidnapped by unknown people on Thursday afternoon and his body was found on Friday with three bullet wounds to his head. 

The prosecutor of Zahedan, Mehdi Shamsabadi, confirmed his death, explaining that he was abducted from the backdoor of Imam Hussein Mosque and was taken with a car without a license plate. He added that the police is investigating the case to identify the perpetrators of this incident.

Following the Bloody Friday of Zahedan and the killings in the city of Khash, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had sent a delegation to the region as a measure to calm the situation. Abdolvahed was one of the clerics who met with the representatives of Khamenei. 

The crackdown on protesters in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan, known as the Bloody Friday, took place September 30, when security forces killed close to 100 people, including women and children. 

Since then, people of the province are holding protest rallies almost every week after Friday prayers, chanting slogans against the regime and its ruler Khamenei. 

Earlier in the day, Molavi Abdolhamid, the most prominent religious leader of Iran's largely Sunni Baluch population living in the province, again criticized the regime for the execution of Mohsen Shekari, a young protester hanged for injuring a security guard with a knife and closing off a street in the capital Tehran, as well as other death sentences issued against other protesters.