Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, one of the 6 clearics appointed by Khamenei into the Assembly of experts (Majles-e Khibregan), he was shot dead in northern city of Babolsar today.
Soleimani had served as the personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the province of Sistan and Baluchestan earlier.
Confusion persisted hours after the attack. State TV initially reported that Soleimani was at the bank when another man seized a guard’s firearm and began shooting over a personal dispute with an employee.
State TV later reported that the guard was the one who opened fire and killed the cleric. The Interior Ministry arrested the attacker and launched a special investigation into the murder, whose motive remains unclear.
Soleimani was a member of the Assembly of Experts, an 88-seat panel that oversees and appoints Iran’s supreme leader. He also was the imam who led the weekly Friday prayers in the #Kashan and #Zahedan cities.
The 75-year-old cleric had served as the personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali #Khamenei to the province of #Sistan and #Baluchestan, which shares a border with #Pakistan and #Afghanistan and has a majority #Sunni population.
Extremist groups against #Tehran’s Shiite government operate there, along with gangs dedicated to smuggling and drug trafficking activities.
In April 2022, a suspected Sunni extremist stabbed to death two Shiite clerics and injured another in #Mashhad city on the influence of the #takfiri, a term used for Muslims who brand others as apostates and condemn them to death.
