The giant waves that engulfed the impoverished province on the northern tip of Sumatra island on December 26, 2004, killing tens of thousands, paved the way for an end to three decades of conflict.

Sistan-Baluchistan borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is one of Iran's most impoverished provinces. It is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shia-dominated Iran. For years it ...