Two Iranian clerics were severely beaten in the religious city of Qom in Iran, one of them was hospitalized with serious injuries, the other had to undergo surgery in the hospital. They were beaten with iron pipes by two unknown persons who fled the scene
Last night (Wednesday) two unknown persons beat two clerics in the religious city of Qom in Iran, one of them was hospitalized with serious injuries and the other was hospitalized in a more serious condition and needed surgery. One of them said that he saw two people beating a cleric he knew with iron pipes, and when the attackers saw him looking from his car they started beating him too and broke his car windows. The clerics are imams in two mosques. This was reported by the Iran International TV channel.
The cleric who had minor injuries criticized the city police for showing up very late after about 40 minutes, and for not arresting the criminals even though they knew where they were hiding. It is not clear if the attackers knew the first victim or if they attacked him for a personal reason.
Several Iranian clerics have recently been attacked by angry Iranians, rising prices and protests have led to a tense situation in the country.
At the end of last July, a cleric named Mujtaba Hosseini was stabbed several times in the back during his sermon in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran. And at the beginning of July, an imam was injured in prayer after an assassination attempt on his life by a motorcyclist in the city of Esfahan.
At the beginning of June, the representative of the Supreme Leader of Iran was also attacked in the city of Esfahan by a young man carrying a knife. And in April, a man stabbed three clerics at Iran’s largest Shiite shrine in Mashhad, killing two.