TEHRAN — The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Friday that it had arrested an alleged militant in Sistan-Baluchistan province, days after two members of the same group were killed. Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency said that weapons, ammunition, explosives and communications equipment had been seized, and that the group had planned attacks against predetermined targets in the province.

The announcement followed a series of similar reports. Iran's intelligence ministry said on Thursday that it had dismantled two "terrorist-takfiri" cells in Khash — located in the same province — killing two people and detaining four. The IRGC has also been reporting other arrests and deadly operations in the area in recent weeks.

Iranian authorities routinely describe armed opponents in the southeast as terrorist or separatist groups. But the frequency of the recent operations is significant, suggesting that, alongside the conflict with the US and Israel, Tehran is closely watching a province where militancy and popular discontent have long overlapped.

One of Iran's most marginalized regions, Sistan-Baluchistan stretches along the country's porous southeastern frontier with Pakistan and Afghanistan and is home to a predominantly Sunni population and Iran's ethnic Baluch minority. A 2025 EU asylum assessment described a long-standing pattern of discrimination against the Baluch population since the 1979 revolution. A recent UN assessment also said Sistan-Baluchistan remained Iran's poorest province despite its mineral and maritime resources, pointing to chronic unemployment, limited state investment and exclusion from parts of the formal economy.