TEHRAN – A takfiri attack at a holy shrine in Iran has claimed the life of a second Muslim scholar, media reports said on Thursday.
The martyrdom of Sadegh Darai was reported as thousands of mourners attended the funeral of another scholar, Muhammad Aslani, stabbed by the same takfiri terrorist.
A third cleric was wounded in Tuesday’s attack at the Imam Reza shrine in Iran’s second-largest city of Mashhad, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Darai, seriously wounded during the knifing, passed away in hospital, national television said.
TV images showed thousands of mourners, including local officials, attending Aslani’s funeral at the city’s Shohada Square near the shrine, following a memorial service the previous day.
He was buried in a plot reserved for “martyrs” in the sanctuary’s courtyard.
The assailant stabbed one of the victims 20 times, according to Tasnim news agency.
The chief suspect has been identified as Abdolatif Moradi, 21, an Afghan who had entered Iran illegally via the Pakistani border a year ago, Tasnim said.
Moradi had “worked in transport” in a poor city district and had been active on social media using pseudonyms including Abdolatif al-Salafi to “spread takfiri ideology and confront Shiites”, it said.
President Ebrahim Raisi has blamed the knife attack on the influence of U.S.-based “takfiri” groups -- a term used for Muslims who brand others as apostates, condemning them to death, and usually referring to Daesh and Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The assailant struck on Iran’s third day of Ramadan. Large crowds of worshippers had gathered at the shrine of Imam Reza (AS).
Authorities arrested six suspected accomplices, including the chief suspect’s two brothers.
Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, in a statement on Thursday called it a “terrorist attack” and said his ministry would pursue the perpetrators and all “takfiris”.
He had earlier been instructed by President Raisi to probe the incident and submit a report.
Expressing his condolences to the families of victims, Vahidi said the attack made it amply clear that the enemies have not abandoned their bid to sow discord among different groups and sects.
He called terrorism an offshoot of the worldview held by arrogant global powers that created Daesh and other terrorist groups.
Dismissing foreign propaganda to sow division between Afghans and Iranians in the wake of the Mashhad incident, Vahidi hailed shared civilization and deep-rooted ties between the two neighboring countries.
“The enemy is trying to exploit the religious and ethnic differences among friendly nations but this act will lead nowhere,” he said. “The best youths of Afghanistan have

lost their lives in confronting the takfiri groups.”
He said the Afghan people had thrown Americans out of their country with humiliation.
The attack has been widely condemned by leaders and organizations belonging to different religious denominations in both Iran and Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, in a statement on Thursday, condemned the gruesome incident and stressed that the issue has nothing to do with Afghans or Afghanistan.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former chief executive of Afghanistan, also issued a statement calling the incident a “cowardly terrorist attack”.
He said Afghans are staunch supporters of peace and coexistence with themselves and others.
Afghan scholars based in Iran have also unequivocally condemned the incident, saying the 21-year old takfiri assailant does not belong to them.