Sunni cleric shot dead outside mosque in southern Iran, state media says

A Sunni cleric was shot dead outside a mosque in a town in southern Iran, the country's official IRNA agency reported.

Abdolshakour Kord was gunned down in the town of Khash, about 1,000 miles southeast of capital Tehran.

The cleric was active in both religious and academic fields, IRNA said, adding the case was under investigation.

Khash lies in the restive Sistan-Baluchestan province near the Pakistan border, and has been the scene of clashes between Baluch militants and Iranian government forces.

The province is on a major transit route for heroin being smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

The predominantly Shia Iran, with a population of about 80 million, has a Sunni minority of several million.