“Intelligence forces arrested five perpetrators of the martyrdom of Martyre Shahraki,” the statement read.

“In the initial confessions, the defendants accepted the links to counter-revolutionary groups abroad, as well as hostile spy services,” it said.

“They confessed to the intention of continuing terrorist acts against Shia and Sunni figures and sensitive places in the province to create a bipolar atmosphere and wage a religious warfare in Sistan-Balouchestan,” it added.

The unidentified armed men killed a Shia cleric in charge of daily prayers at a mosque in Iran’s Southeastern Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province in early November. Shahraki had been shot in the head and chest and had succumbed to his wounds despite being transferred to the hospital.

Late in September, Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan province which is home to Iran’s Baluch minority, saw an attack on a police station and a mosque.

The assailants torched a fire engine, an emergency station and a bank, but according to authorities, their attempts to trigger an ethnic sedition in the region fell flat thanks to the timely presence of security forces.

The attacks, claimed by the so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group, left at least 20 people, including police officers, dead and 20 others injured.

Iranian officials have condemned the deadly raid in the province of Sistan-Balouchestan, and vowed that Tehran will give a crushing response to the atrocities committed by foreign mercenaries across the country.