Yes, we have known for some time now that the Baluchi region of Iran is one of the poorest, the most neglected, and the most cursed with the problem of drugs, because it is one of the places in which Afghani opium goes to the Persian Gulf and from there to Europe
There are two ways for the heroin and opium to travel, and of course some of it stays in Iran. I'm sure you have heard about the new UN study that came out just yesterday and shows that Iran, next to Russia, or along with Russia, tops the countries of the world in the number of addicts using heroin and opium. For that reason Baluchistan, with some two million people, has become more or less a militarized region. The Revolutionary Guards have taken it over.
One of the most recent incidents was an attempt by the Revolutionary Guard command structure in Baluchistan to meet with some of the Baluchi elders to try to see if they can find a resolution to these ongoing tensions that exist in Baluchistan. Unfortunately, a suicide bomber entered that meeting and killed 40 people, including some very high-ranking members.
For the Baluchi, it's both because they are an ethnic minority and because they are Sunnis. Again, one of the problems in Iran is that the majority of the Muslims are Shiite, but there is a considerable minority that is Sunni. Some of the more radical elements of Shiism would not mind triggering or reopening old wounds in terms of Shiite-Sunni tensions.
That's why the Baluchi problem is particularly important. Because if it gets out of hand, then you will have a resurgence of the Sunni-Shiite bloodletting that has been an unfortunate part of the history of Iran and the Islamic world.
It's not just the Baluchis, but also the Kurds, Turks, Turkomans, and Arab-speaking Iranians, who are all minorities living in Iran's periphery, who have had their rights ignored in one way or another. Their fair share of the government budget, their right to celebrate their local culture, and their right to teach in their language have all been ignored.
Added to that is the fact that many of these minorities, many of the Kurds, Arab speakers, and Baluchis, are also Sunnis. That together, this combination of being an ethnic “other” and a religious “other”, has made it so that these areas of the periphery are both ignored and now under virtual military clampdown by the Revolutionary Guards, particularly the Baluchistan region.