Iran, Tehran – Officials said a deadly knife attack at a holy shrine in Mashhad, Iran’s northeastern city, earlier this week was an attempt to drive a rift between Muslims and nations.
The attack took occurred on the fourth day of Ramadan in Iran, when big crowds gathered in the courtyard of Imam Reza’s shrine, which is frequented by millions of people every year.
The assailant was identified as Abdolatif Moradi, a 21-year-old ethnic Uzbek who entered Iran illegally over the Pakistani border a year ago.
It then aired a claimed video of the perpetrator, in which he mocks Shia beliefs.
Iran’s Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, spoke to media on Thursday and condemned the “terrorist” attack on the shrine, in which a spiritual leader was killed and two others were seriously injured.
“This bitter event shows that the enemy has not ceased its efforts to spread discord,” he said, without ascribing direct blame to a specific country or organisation.
“This is a blind movement developed by Western countries,” Vahidi said, referring to individuals who disseminate “takfiri” thinking, a word for Muslim extremism in which people are labelled as apostates and sentenced to death.
“Colonialists and hypocritical Muslims must not be permitted to utilise ethnic and religious divisions to cause conflict between Muslims and the people of our country and our neighbours,” President Ebrahim Raisi, who earlier headed the foundation that manages the holy shrine, said on Wednesday.
The perpetrator was pushed to the ground and caught by people at the shrine, according to videos of the attack.
He was then taken into jail, and other persons who were claimed to have supported him in the attack were apprehended, according to Iranian media.
Thousands of people attended a public funeral procession for Mohammad Aslani on Thursday in Mashhad.
Flowers were laid at the scene of the incident in the mausoleum’s courtyard.
