Iranian intelligence services have identified and arrested all members of a terrorist group in the country's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, Mehr quoted the provincial directorate of the Intelligence Ministry as saying.

According to the statement, the terrorist group was involved in the armed abduction and killing of human rights activists Samir Balukh and his pregnant wife, Hanigol Balukh, in Iranshar district and their transfer to the outskirts of the Saravan border region earlier this month.

The two activists were tortured, killed and eventually burned and dumped in the border area.

Through an in-depth investigation into the circumstances surrounding the heinous crime, the intelligence forces of the southeastern province managed to identify and arrest all six members of the terrorist group, the statement says. 

Anti-Iranian terrorists and their patrons tried to attribute the brutal killing of Samir and his wife to Iranian security forces in order to sow uncertainty and fan the flames of unrest across the country, it adds. 

In a statement late last month, Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced that its forces had dismantled a number of terrorist cells linked to the Israeli regime in four provinces across the country.

The ministry said the "sabotage cells" were part of a vast "Zionist-terrorist" network that conducted several operations in the four Iranian provinces of Khuzestan, Mazandaran, Kermanshah, Sistan and Baluchistan.