Activists have long complained the region has been the victim of discrimination by Iran's Shiite clerical leadership, with disproportionate numbers of Baluch killed in clashes every year and also hanged in executions."Killing Baluch does not cost much for the Iranian government," said Abdollah Aref, director of the UK-based Baluch Activists Campaign (BAC) which advocates for the rights of the minority.Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed Wednesday that "foreign interventionists, organised agents and terrorists, especially in Zahedan and the west of Iran, pushed the path of peaceful gatherings of people towards violence, riots and killing of innocent people, the police and security forces".In his Friday prayer sermon in Zahedan, influential Sunni cleric Shaikh Abdolhamid told worshippers the "demands of the people should not be unanswered" while there needed to be "serious measures taken" to investigate the reported rape.Reports said that Taftan, the main border crossing east of Zahedan between Iran and Pakistan's Balochistan province, had been closed in the wake of the unrest."