The Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in the province said in a statement, “Upon receiving the initial information, the Iranian intelligence forces took a series of joint intelligence and operational actions, and while closely monitoring and spotting the movements of the MKO members, they identified the affiliated group in a coordinated action and arrested 19 of its members in the province.”
The statement also read that the group has been seeking to sow sectarian strife in the mainly Sunni Muslim province and has been recruiting forces to assassinate outstanding religious and ethnic figures.
The intelligence organization noted that the MKO members have caused insecurity across the province during the past months by inciting riots, vandalizing public property, attacking security forces and police headquarters, and chanting hate-driven slogans during Friday prayers.
The MKO, infamously known as the Hypocrites, is an anti-Iran terrorist group supported by the West and has assassinated over 17,000 Iranian civilians since the 1979 Revolution in Iran.
The group has taken advantage of the developments in Sistan and Baluchestan, as it has been a hotbed of riots and deadly protests and has witnessed bloody clashes between security forces and armed dissidents since September last year, when young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in a police station.
