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Two men involved in Shah Cheragh terrorist attack that killed 15 executed

This file picture shows the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the highly revered Shah Cheragh shrine in Iran's southern city of Shiraz, Fars province, on October 26, 2022. (Photo by Tasnim news agency)

Iranian judicial authorities have executed two men who had been sentenced to death for involvement in a deadly terrorist attack last October on the revered Shah Cheragh shrine in the southern province of Fars.

Mizan news agency, affiliated with the Iranian Judiciary, reported on Saturday that the two, identified as Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeim Hashem Qetali, were hanged at dawn in the provincial capital city of Shiraz, following ten court sessions attended by their lawyers and the fact that Iran’s Supreme Court had upheld their death penalty in mid-March.

According to the report, the men had said during their trial that they had been in contact with the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in neighboring Afghanistan, and helped organize the attack on the holy shrine in Shiraz.

Mizan also said that other convicts, identified as Mohammad Rahmani, Mostafa Jaan-Amani and Hamidullah Kabuli, were respectively sentenced to 25, 15 and 5 years in prison.

On October 26, 2022, an armed terrorist barged into the Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz, killing 15 pilgrims, including women and children, and injuring dozens more before he was arrested by security forces.

The terrorist was later pronounced dead at a hospital, succumbing to injuries sustained during the attack that sent shockwaves across the country.

A few suspects were immediately nabbed, and, some two weeks later, the Intelligence Ministry announced the arrest of 26 Takfiri terrorists for involvement in the attack. The statement said the men were nationals of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and none of them was Iranian.

During a court session in Shiraz on March 15, Qetali, an Afghan national, confessed to making preparations for supporting the prime attacker in Tehran and pleaded guilty to directly helping the attacker and financially supporting members of the group.

The court accused him of aiding and abetting “corruption on earth” through financial participation and support for Daesh elements in Iran.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in a message on October 27, pledged that the perpetrators of the “outrageous” crime will definitely face punishment.

“The grief of these dears and desecration of the shrine of Ahl al Bayt will, however, not be compensated unless through tracking these disastrous acts back to where they originate from and through adopting decisive and wise measures against it,” the Leader said.

IRGC repels terrorist attack in southeast Iran

Also on Saturday morning, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps foiled a terrorist attack on a police station in the southeast of the country, killing all four assailants. 

In a statement, the IRGC said the terrorists raided the police station in the city of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province, but they faced stiff resistance from law enforcement forces stationed there and were all shot dead. Two law enforcement forces were martyred in the firefight.

Tasnim news agency reported that two of the assailants detonated their explosive-laden vests outside the police station in the provincial capital city of Zahedan.  

Police forces inside the station, located south of the Sunni Musalla (prayer hall) of Zahedan, and security forces outside the base surrounded the assailants amid the heavy exchange of fire. They managed to gun down the two remaining attackers.

Doostali Jalilian, the provincial police chief, said Private Mobin Rashidi and Sergeant Major Alireza Kikha lost their lives during the armed confrontation.

Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan, has witnessed several terror attacks targeting both civilians and security forces over the past years.

Terrorist groups carrying out attacks against Iranian interests in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country have links to a number of repressive regimes in the Persian Gulf region.

Iran’s security forces have invariably protected the border areas and managed to repel almost all terrorist attacks by foreign-backed anti-revolution elements across the country.


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