A Sunni Imam in Golestan Province Shot Dead

Reports from Iran indicate that Molavi Abdolghafour Jamalzahi, the Sunni Imam of the village of Razabad in Golestan Province, was shot dead on Tuesday morning, December 6, shortly after leaving his home. According to ILNA news agency, Mojtaba Morovati, the head of the Golestan Province Criminal Police, stated that Mr. Jamalzahi was assassinated by two individuals while heading to the mosque for the morning prayer at six o'clock. Mr. Morovati mentioned that the assailants fired at the Sunni cleric with a shotgun, hitting him in the legs and waist. He announced that the police have begun their investigations to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the murder. Mr. Morovati did not provide further details about this assassination. In recent years, several Sunni clerics have been assassinated, including Molavi Abdolshakur Kord (Turshabi), the son of the former Sunni Imam of Zahedan, who was shot dead by unknown individuals on July 14. Molavi Mostafa Jangi Zahi, the Imam of the Khazra Mosque in the city of Rask in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, was also shot dead on January 30, 2012. The IRNA news agency referred to this Sunni cleric as a 'supporter of the Islamic Revolution,' and on April 23, 2012, the Ministry of Intelligence announced that '15 individuals' linked to the assassination and their supporting networks had been arrested. Previously, Mamosta Abdulrahim Tina, the Imam of a Sunni mosque in Mahabad, was assassinated on September 29, 2008, by two motorcyclists who shot him multiple times. In this case, five individuals were sentenced to death for the assassination of this Imam and a soldier, while two others received ten years in prison, but these death sentences have not yet been confirmed by the Supreme Court. Sheikh Ali Dehvari, another Sunni cleric from Saravan, Mamosta Borhan Ali, a Sunni cleric and Imam of the Quba Mosque in Sanandaj, and Mamosta Mohammad Sheikh Al-Islam, a representative from Kurdistan in the Assembly of Experts, are among other clerics who have been assassinated in the past decade. In addition to the assassination of Sunni clerics, several have been arrested and executed by security agencies. Among them, Molavi Abdulqodous Malazahi, the nephew and son-in-law of the late Molavi Mohammad Omar Sarbazi, a senior Sunni cleric in Iran and the head of the Dar al-Furqan seminary in the village of Chah Jamal in Iranshahr, and Molavi Mohammad Youssef Sohrabi were executed in April 2008.