Tehran (AFP) - Iran held a memorial service Wednesday for a Shiite Muslim cleric stabbed to death a day earlier by a suspected Sunni extremist in the revered Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
The chief suspect in the bloody attack was identified as Abdolatif Moradi, 21, an ethnic Uzbek who had entered Iran illegally via the Pakistani border a year ago, the Tasnim news agency reported.
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".
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi blamed the knife attack, which wounded two other clerics, on the influence of US-based "takfiri" groups -- a term used for Muslims who brand others as apostates, condemning them to death, and usually referring to Sunni extremists.
Raisi -- who once chaired the charitable foundation that runs the gold-domed Imam Reza shrine -- instructed Iran's intelligence ministry to probe the killing of the cleric Mohammad Aslani, who held the rank of hojatoleslam.
The assailant struck on Iran's third day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan as large crowds of worshippers had gathered in the courtyard of the shrine of Imam Reza, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam.
Authorities arrested six suspected accomplices, including the chief suspect's two brothers, after the attack in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city with more than three million people.
The assailant stabbed one of the victims "20 times", the Tasnim report said.
Martyrs' square
Flowers were placed at the scene of the attack, in the courtyard of the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth of the 12 holy imams in Shiite Islam, Iran's state religion since the 16th century.
A memorial service for Aslani was held Wednesday after the evening iftar meal at which the Muslim faithful break their dawn-to-dusk fast during Ramadan.
The head of media at the mausoleum, who gave his name as Mr Rostamzadeh, said clergymen carried the body around the courtyard as others recited the Koran.
Aslani will be buried on Thursday in a square reserved for martyrs in the shrine's courtyard.
The Fars news agency had released a picture of the three victims seated together in Mashhad, identifying the two wounded clerics only as Pakdaman and Daraei.
Rostamzadeh earlier told AFP that "after the knife attack, the assailant was arrested by security services and 15 minutes later everything was back to normal.
"People were absolutely not afraid -- on the contrary, it aroused religious fervour," he said."There was no closure or interruption."
"There are a lot of people, the shrine is full of worshippers and pilgrims who attend religious ceremonies, especially during Ramadan."
The Islamic Republic of Iran has a population of 83 million, 90 percent of whom are Shiite Muslims.
