Aide to Sunni imam detained in unrest-ridden southeast Iran

An aide to Molavi Abdol Hamid, a powerful figure in Iran's ethnic Baluchi minority who practises Sunni Islam, was detained late on Monday in the unrest-plagued city of Zahedan, according to state television.

According to the official IRNA news agency, Abdolmajid Moradzehi was charged with "manipulating public opinion" and "communicating on several occasions with foreign people and media outlets."

The province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which is home to the ethnic Baluch minority and has a capital city named Zahedan, had been the scene of violent clashes that were frequently fatal even before nationwide demonstrations broke out in September over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman.

After Friday prayers at the city's Makki mosque, led by Abdol Hamid, thousands of people marched to the streets, and several people, including security personnel, were killed.

They were protesting the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a local police commander who had her in custody in the coastal city of Chabahar.

Iranian officials criticised Abdol Hamid during the months-long protests, calling his sermons at prayer "provocative."

When asked about the ongoing turmoil in Zahedan in late October, Iran's deputy interior minister Majid Mirahmadi responded, "If there weren't provocative words in the sermons, we would have seen quiet in Zahedan."

The unrest was described by state media as "extremist" attacks on police stations. In response to outrage over the alleged rape, Abdol Hamid claimed that security personnel "fired at civilians" near the mosque.

One of the few Sunni-dominated cities in Iran's Shiite-majority region is Zahedan.