Outspoken Iranian Sunni leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid has stated that regime forces have shut down a number of Sunni prayer rooms in Mashhad and Tehran.

In a sermon delivered at the Friday prayer service in the Sunni-majority city of Zahedan in the southeast, Abdolhamid said the prayer rooms were "trouble-free", and "nothing was said against" the Shiite clerical government.

Since Mahsa Amini's death in mid-September 2022 and the nationwide uprising that followed, Zahedan has become the epicenter of protests against the Islamic Republic.

In recent weeks, tensions have increased between the Sunni Baluch minority in the region and Islamic Republic authorities.

As reported last week, security and law enforcement forces and "armored bulletproof military vehicles” were deployed at some crossing points in the Sistan-Baluchistan province before the weekly Friday sermon of Mowlavi Abdolhamid.

Currently, Iranian authorities are being criticized for failing to punish those responsible for Zahedan's 'Bloody Friday' on September 30, 2022, when security forces fired at protesters.

It is estimated that nearly 100 civilians, including women and children, were killed in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, when they peacefully protested against the government.