Some Victims of the Deadly Kerman Explosions Demand 'Blood Money for Their Children'

A family member of the victims of the deadly Kerman explosions that occurred during the anniversary ceremony of Qassem Soleimani in December 2023 stated that some of these families are demanding 'diye' (blood money), but no organization has taken responsibility for paying it. Hossein Soltani-Nejad, who lost eight family members in this incident, told the Jamaran website on Friday, January 14, that some families of the deceased are facing 'social and economic issues.' He mentioned that these families claim that the deaths of their loved ones were due to an incident caused by a foreign entity. 'This incident in Iran should have been managed, but now that management has not occurred, blood money should be paid,' he asserted. He further claimed, 'The victims want the blood money for their children. They are moving forward with this perspective, but there is no news.' As a result of two explosions during the anniversary ceremony of Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Kerman on January 3, 2023, over 90 people were killed and nearly 300 were injured. Reuters reported that ISIS-Khorasan claimed responsibility for the Kerman explosions, and U.S. intelligence indicated that ISIS-Khorasan was behind the attacks. Some officials of the Islamic Republic, including former President Ebrahim Raisi, claimed without evidence that ISIS is a 'U.S. creation.' Shortly after the ceremony, the Ministry of Intelligence announced that one of the two suicide bombers was a citizen of Tajikistan. The ministry later reported the arrest of 35 individuals across six provinces as 'instigators and affiliates' of this incident. Hossein Soltani-Nejad also mentioned that in the initial days, a 'disability percentage' was assigned to some of the injured by the Martyrs Foundation to provide them with free treatment, but later the 'main commission' of this foundation removed some of the victims from the 'disability' category and assigned a lower disability percentage than the families expected, causing 'dissatisfaction.' The Martyrs Foundation was a state organization established in March 1980 by the command of Ruhollah Khomeini to address the situation of the families of the deceased and injured in the events leading to the 1979 revolution and took responsibility for the families of the deceased in the Iran-Iraq war. In 2004, it was renamed 'Martyrs and Veterans Affairs Foundation' by Ali Khamenei's order, and other parallel institutions were merged into it. The deadly Kerman explosions in December 2023 sparked increased criticism of the performance of the Islamic Republic's security organizations, and even the head of the Supreme Court implicitly questioned the performance of these institutions. Additionally, a member of the National Security Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly claimed a few days after the explosions that bombings were planned in the cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz, and Shiraz during the anniversary of Qassem Soleimani, but those bombs were neutralized.