Another Sunnite cleric has been murdered in Iranian Balouchistan, sources in the region reported, apparently as part of an ongoing effort by Tehran to intimidate the Balouchis and other minority Sunnite groups.
The cleric, Molavi Abdulaziz Kazemi, was a teacher at the University of Sistan and Balouchistan in Zahedan, and was kidnapped at 7 PM on Nov. 5, sources close to his family told FDI, as he was leaving his university office. Two days later, his bullet-ridden body was found 15 kilometers outside Zahedan, on the main highway leading toward Birjand. It was identified by family members.
Kazemi was a known political activist who had called on Tehran to respect the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran. Family members say he had been targeted by the regime because he had built up a power base in the Zahedan region. He was working on a Ph.D. from Sistan and Balouchistan university at the time of his death.
Several other Sunnite clerics have been assassinated in recent months inside Iran and in Pakistan. They include Molavi Abdul-Malek Mollahzadeh, who was gunned down with an aide outside his Karachi home on March 4, 1996, and Molavi Ahmad Sayyad, whose mutilated body was found on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas on Feb. 2, 1996, after family members claimed he was abducted at the Bandar Abbas airport by MOIS agents. (See FDI Action Memoranda 007 of Feb. 15, 1996 and 008 of March 3, 1996)
Mollahzadeh, Sayyad, and Kazemi had all received religious training in Saudi Arabia. Kazemi graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Medina University in Saudi Arabia, then took an MA from Tehran University. He was born in Khorassan province.