Gunmen kill eulogist, seminary student in northwestern, central Iran

Gunmen have shot dead an Iranian eulogist and a young seminary student in separate attacks across the country.

Known in Iran as eulogist or "maddah", Habil Afaq Azar was killed in the northwestern city of Tabriz in East Azarbaijan Province on Thursday.

According to the preliminary investigation, Afaq Azar was killed by a bullet near a square in Tabriz but his body was found in another location on Thursday, Fars news agency reported.

Mahmoud Hosseini, the director general of the Islamic Advertisement Organization of East Azarbaijan, said Afaq Azar, 45, was one of the best eulogists of Tabriz who had made several trips to Turkey and Azerbaijan to deliver eulogies. He said a special team of senior police officers and judicial officials are investigating the crime.

In a separate incident, unknown individuals shot and killed a 19-year-old seminary student identified as Salaheddin Salahi in the city of Saqqez in the central province of Kordestan.

Deputy governor of Kordestan for political, security and social affairs, Mehdi Ramezani, told IRNA on Friday that Salahi was killed by a bullet early on Thursday in front of his home. Ramezani said investigations are underway to arrest the perpetrators.

Attacks against religious individuals and figures, including pilgrims, clerics and seminary students, have increased dramatically in Iran since foreign-backed riots erupted across the country in September last year. In some cases, the attackers have beaten to death or fatally shot the victims.

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Clerics have been particularly targeted in such hate crimes, which include verbal harassment and their turbans being flicked as they walk in the streets. These Islamophobic acts have been widely endorsed by Western-based media outlets, including the Saudi-funded, London-based Iran International news network, which Tehran blacklisted as a terrorist organization due to its role in fueling the violent riots.

On October 26, 2022, a heavily-armed terrorist targeted the Shah Cheragh shrine in the southern province of Fars just before the evening prayers, killing 15 pilgrims — including a lady and two children — and injuring at least 40 others. The attacker opened fire indiscriminately on visitors within the shrine, according to the police commander of Fars province. He was wounded and taken into custody by security personnel. He later succumbed to his wounds.

The riots broke out after the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in Tehran. Amini died on September 16 that year in the hospital three days after she collapsed at a police station. An investigation attributed her death to her medical condition, dismissing allegations that she had been beaten by police forces.

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