TEHRAN: A Shiite cleric in central Iran was injured on Saturday morning after an assailant on a motorcycle shot at him, Iranian state media said.
Mohsen Akhavan, who holds the clerical rank of hojatoleslam, was targeted in the city of Isfahan, according to the website of state broadcaster IRIB.
Akhavan, who was the imam of a mosque in the city, was returning home after leading the morning prayer when the attack occurred, IRIB reported.
The report added that the cleric, who had earlier been working at the Isfahan Islamic seminary, was “not seriously injured” and was being treated in hospital.
In early April, a Sunni extremist of Uzbek origin stabbed two Shiite clerics to death and injured a third in the courtyard of the main shrine of the northeastern holy city of Mashhad.
Abdolatif Moradi, 21, was hanged on June 20 in the same city after being convicted over the attack, according to the judicial authority.
Moradi “was accused of moharebeh (’war against God’, in Persian) using a weapon to terrorize the population in the shrine and even outside it,” judicial authorities said.
The attack in Mashhad came days after two Sunni clerics were shot dead outside a seminary in the northern Iranian town of Gonbad-e Kavus.
The three suspects in that case, also Sunnis, were arrested in late April but were said to have “no connection with terrorist groups,” state media reported at the time.
Shiite cleric shot, wounded in central Iran
https://arab.news/gmjbu
Shiite cleric shot, wounded in central Iran
- Mohsen Akhavan was targeted in the city of Isfahan
- He was returning home after leading the morning prayer when the attack occurred
Supporters of Tunisia’s Saied rally amid deepening political divisions
- Rights groups have accused Saied of an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition
TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied’s supporters rallied in the capital on Wednesday calling the opposition “traitors,” following mounting street protests in recent weeks that have highlighted widening political divisions.
The rival rallies come amid a deepening economic crisis marked by high inflation, shortages of some basic goods and poor public services, which have fueled public anger.
Rights groups have accused Saied of an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition, saying he is using the judiciary and police to stifle criticism. Saied rejects the accusations, saying he is cleansing the country of traitors and a corrupt elite.
Demonstrators gathered in central Tunis waving national flags and chanting slogans backing Saied, whom they credit with confronting corruption and entrenched political elites.
They accused Saied’s opponents of seeking to destabilize the country, describing them as “traitors.” They chanted “people want Saied again” and “we support the leadership and sovereignty.”
“We are here to rescue Tunisia from traitors and colonial lackeys,” protester Saleh Ghiloufi said.
Saied’s critics say arrests of opposition leaders, civil society groups and journalists underscore an authoritarian turn by the president since he took on extraordinary powers in 2021 to rule by decree.
The powerful UGTT union has called a nationwide strike next month.
A Tunisian court last week sentenced prominent opposition figure Abir Moussi to 12 years in prison, in what critics say is another step toward entrenching Saied’s one-man rule.
While an appeals court last month handed jail terms of up to 45 years to dozens of opposition leaders, business people and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow Saied.
Saied was elected in 2019 with an overwhelming mandate, but his consolidation of power has alarmed domestic opponents and international partners, who warn Tunisia is retreating from democratic governance.
