Tehran - (AFP) - The Security Council in Sistan-Baluchestan province, southeastern Iran , announced on Friday the assassination of a Sunni imam after he was kidnapped.

The Security Council said in a statement, "Maulavi Abd al-Wahed Rigi, the imam of the Sunnis' Friday gathering in the Imam al-Hussein Majlis in the city of Khash, and one of the most prominent sheikhs of the region and the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, was kidnapped and martyred by unknown persons on Thursday noon."

Iran is witnessing a protest movement that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, three days after she was arrested by the morality police for violating the country's strict dress code.

According to the Oslo-based Human Rights Organization in Iran, security forces have killed at least 448 protesters so far, most of them in Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The province witnessed protests following the news that a girl had been raped in prison by a police official in the city of Chabahar.

Sistan-Baluchistan, which is predominantly Sunni, is the poorest region in Iran, and its Baloch population suffers from discrimination.

At least 128 people were killed in the province in the security crackdown launched by the Iranian authorities, according to the Human Rights Organization in Iran, which is the largest death toll in 26 of Iran's 31 provinces.