A prominent Sunni cleric from Iran's Kurdistan region has condemned the mass arrests of Sunni scholars from the region and criticized the silence of Shi'ite clerics on the matter.
The Iranian provinces of Sistan-Baluchistan and Kurdistan have been a hotbed for unrest since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her head scarf improperly.
Hassan Amini, who leads the Kurdistan Jurisprudence Assembly, told RFE/RL that more than 20 Sunni religious scholars, known as "mamusta," were arrested in various Kurdish cities for accompanying protesters and supporting their demands, while several others were summoned and interrogated.
Amini said Iran was seeking to suppress the protests, "while none of the people's demands have received a positive response from the government."
"Sunni leaders have not refrained from writing protest statements, giving speeches, and raising demands. But the government doesn't tolerate that, telling people, 'You shouldn't talk, you shouldn't make demands,'" Amini added.
Two prominent Iranian Sunni clerics, Molavi Naqshbandi and Molavi Abdulmajid, are among those detained so far.
In a January 19 interview with RFE/RL, Abdulmajid criticized the government for generating an atmosphere of insecurity in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan Province and a hotbed of the protest movement, and said the protests in the city will continue.
The government has unleashed a brutal crackdown on the months of unrest -- one of the deepest challenges to the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979 -- that erupted following the September 16 death of Amini.
Sunni Muslims make up a majority of the population in Sistan-Baluchistan Province and Kurdistan, but account for only about 10 percent of the population in Shi'a-dominated Iran overall.
Since Amini's death, more than 500 people have been killed in the police crackdown, according to rights groups. Several thousand more have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.