The knife attack on Tuesday, April 5, against three Iranian Shiite clerics, one of whom died, came to darken the Ramadan fast in Iran. An attack that could fuel tensions between Shiites and Sunnis, many in the border provinces with Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also among Afghan refugees living in Iran.
This unprecedented attack took place in the city of Mashhad, one of the main holy cities of the country where millions of Iranian pilgrims, but also foreigners, go each year. At the start of the afternoon, the aggressor entered at a very busy time the grounds of the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth successor of the Prophet, according to Shia Muslims, and one of the most venerated figures current.
According to the governor of the province, the aggressor, a young man in his twenties, according to the images, stabs the three religious. Arrested by pilgrims, authorities claim he was a Sunni extremist. Mashhad’s attorney general, Mohamamd-Hossein Doroudi, without giving his nationality, said that four other people had been arrested on suspicion of complicity with the attacker. For its part, the Fars agency explains that it was a foreign national, probably an Afghan, reports our correspondent in Tehran, Siavosh Ghazi.
The motivations of the attacker are not known, but ” the preliminary investigation revealed that the attacker had committed this action under the influence of takfiri currents “, Indicates the local governor, quoted by the television site. The term ” takfiri “, which literally means “those who launch anathemas against people who do not share their ideology”, designates in Iran and in several countries the jihadist groups or Sunni radical Islamists. Five days ago, two Sunni clerics were killed in a neighboring province.
Tensions with displaced Afghans
Afghan refugees are very numerous in this border region with Afghanistan. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a million Afghans have arrived in Iran, often clandestinely, since the Taliban came to power, adding to the three to four million Afghans already present in the country.
In recent days, videos showing rallies against the presence of Afghans in certain cities or Afghan migrants directly confronting the police have multiplied on social networks.
(And with agencies)