Molavi Abdolhamid, the leader of the Baluchi Sunni minority in Zahedan province in Iran has raised his concern about the execution of 20 Sunni religious activists.
On 5 Aug, Abdolhamid, the Sunni Friday prayer Imam of city of Zahidan in southern Iran, said that the recent execution of Sunni prisoners in Iran “shows lack of foresight.”
He raised concern that the executions were unfair and urged the families of those executed to keep their calm.
20 Kurdish Sunni activist who were Shafi’i religious activists were executed on 2 Aug 2016 in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, Iran.
Those executed were all religious activists or affiliates to Shafi’i Sunnis from the Kurdish community.
The Islamic republic authorities are saying that the group that were executed were members of Salafi movement; an allegation that many of the Sunni prisoners have denied.
Molavi Abdolhamid has warned the central government in Tehran of sectarian tensions and has said that the execution of the Sunnis will have negative consequences.
The Baluchi Friday prayer Imam who rarely confronts the central government in Tehran has raised concerns that the enemies of the state especially the hegemonic powers will abuse the news and will take advantage.
Those executed were mostly Kurdish. Sunnis are the largest minority group in Iran. About 9%of the Iranian population are Sunni Muslims—from Larestan, Kurdistan, Balochistan, the Arab populations in the south and the Turkman populations in the northeast Iran.
