Mansour Bijar, 50, has been appointed governor of Sistan-Baluchistan, Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Muhajarani announced on Wednesday.

The appointment follows an attack in the province on Friday in which 10 police officers were killed. The attack was claimed by the Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice).

Sharing a long and porous border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, Sistan-Baluchistan is one of the poorest regions of Iran.

The Baluch people have historically inhabited this region, where Sunni Islam predominates in contrast to the predominant Shiite sect in Iran.

The region has seen recurrent clashes between Iranian state forces, pro-independence Baluch rebels, radical Sunni groups categorised as ‘jihadists’ and their smugglers.

Mansour Bijar is the third non-Farsi governor to be appointed in Iran in recent weeks. Last week, the government promoted the first Arabic-speaking governor of Khuzestan, the oil-rich south-western province bordering Iraq with a large Shia Arab minority. In September, a Kurd was appointed governor of Kurdistan province.

Sunnis have rarely held key positions of power since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.