Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – Eight people have been stabbed by unknown assailants in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, the latest in a series of assaults against clerics and religious people around the country.
The Rokna news website quoted the police chief of Shiraz as saying that the attack, carried out by a 32-year-old man, occurred after the end of a prayer ceremony at the Haj Abbas Mosque in Shiraz on September 16.
No further details were immediately available.
There has been an increase in reports of attacks on clerics and religious people in various parts of Iran in recent months, which coincides with rising tensions among the population over worsening living conditions.
Among them, a member of the Basij in the southern city of Kazeroon died on September 1 after being stabbed by a 15-year-old.
In July, a young Iranian cleric named Mojtaba Hosseini was stabbed several times in the back while giving a sermon in the city of Karaj, while the same month, an imam was injured in an assassination attempt by an assailant passing by on a motorcycle in Isfahan.
Among other incidents, two imams were attacked by unknown assailants in the central Iranian city of Qom.
Mohammad Taghi Fazel Meybodi, a senior member of the Islamic Seminary of Qom, said earlier that many clerics and seminary students didn’t appear in public gatherings because of the “teasing or cursing” they hear from people.
