TEHRAN: An attacker stabbed to death an Iranian Shia Muslim cleric on Tuesday and wounded two others, one of them seriously, in Mashhad, said officials and state media.

The assailant and four suspected accomplices were arrested after the bloody attack in the Imam Ali Reza shrine’s courtyard, said Mohammad-Hossein Doroudi, the chief prosecutor of the northeastern city.

“The attacker is a foreign national,” he told the Fars news agency, without specifying the country.

Amateur video footage showed a man lying in a pool of blood in the courtyard of the site with golden domes and minarets after the attack.

“A man stabbed three Shia clerics with knives, killing one and wounding two others,” said the governor of Khorasan Razavi province, Yaghoub-Ali Nazari, adding that “one of the injured is in serious condition”.

The Astan Quds Razavi charitable foundation, which runs the shrine, said: “With the vigilance of the pilgrims and the efforts of security forces, the assailant was immediately arrested and handed over to the police, and the injured were quickly taken to the hospital.

“The identity of the assailant is under investigation,” added that foundation, whose large asset portfolio was managed from 2016 to 2019 by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

Iran has a population of 83 million, 90 per cent of whom are Shia Muslims.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2022