Tehran, Dec 10 (IANS): A senior Sunni Muslim cleric was murdered in Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province while security forces said a similar attempt was foiled in Khorasan Razavi Province, Iranian media reported.

Local cleric Molavi Abdulvahed Rigi was found dead on the roadside in Khash County earlier in the day, with three bullets in the head, Press TV reported on Friday, citing Sistan and Baluchestan's prosecutor Mehdi Shamsabadi.

The Sunni cleric had earlier been threatened by some anti-Revolution groups, said the report, adding the police have launched an investigation into the case, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cleric was at his mosque on Thursday when "unknown individuals called him from the rear door, making him sit in a car that had no license plate," Shamsabadi was quoted by Press TV as saying.

Molavi Rigi was the Friday prayers leader of Imam Hussein Mosque in the city of Khash, and also a seminary teacher in the province.

Meanwhile, Iranian security forces foiled an assassination attempt on a senior cleric in the city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province, and arrested members of an outlawed group for the scheme, Tasnim news agency reported.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said in a statement on Friday that the "Jaish al-Zulm" group members had been arrested for planning "anti-security acts and terrorist operations," including an attack on the Governor's office and killing Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda, a Friday prayers leader of Mashhad.

Significant amounts of weapons, ammunition and explosives have been discovered from the hideout of these people, according to the report.