A silent protest rally was held in Zahedan for the 41st consecutive week in a row under tight security conditions with regime snipers positioned around the Makki Mosque and routes leading to it.
The extra security measures appeared to be in reaction to this week's attack on a police station in the city that claimed the lives of two officers and the attackers, the incident claimed by an anti-regime Sunni militant group called Jaish al-Adl, or ‘the army of justice’.
During his Friday sermon, Iran’s most prominent Sunni leader, Mowlavi Abdolhamid, repeated his condemnation of the attack and any form of violence, firmly asserting his innocence in connection to the incident.
Immediately after the incident, in spite of his condemnation of the violence, media linked to the Revolutionary Guard and security organs threatened the dissident cleric, blaming his critical comments about regime oppression and violence in the past nine months for the incident.
Tensions in Zahedan have been high since security forces, under the command of the Revolutionary Guards, killed an estimated 80-90 civilian protesters in the city on September 30, which became known as Black Friday.
Some reports suggested that the police station -- precinct #16 -- was the compound from where security forces opened fire on Black Friday protesters, close to the main mosque where people began their protest march.
