Dubai. At least 15 people were killed and at least 40 were injured on Wednesday when heavily armed gunmen opened fire on an important shrine for Shia Muslims in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz. The Noor news agency, which is linked to Iran’s top security body, has termed this terrorist attack that the gunmen who carried out the attack were foreign nationals.
Around 2:15 p.m. local time, three gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles opened indiscriminate fire at pilgrims outside the famous shrine in the historic city of Shiraz, the provincial capital of Fars. The agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the attackers were in a car and shot the pilgrims and staff at the entrance of Shah Cherag’s shrine.
Two gunmen have been arrested while the third is absconding. According to the state news agency IRNA, at least 15 people, including two children and a woman, were killed, while 40 others were injured in this horrific attack on Shah Cherag Dargah.
It is noteworthy that Sunni extremists in Iran have often targeted holy sites of Shia Muslims in the past. This attack in Iran has happened at a time when anti-government movement has been going on in the country for a month demanding independence.