Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the top Iranian nuclear scientist who was assassinated on Friday, has been laid to rest in northern Tehran.
The senior scientist was buried at Imamzadeh Saleh mosque in Tajrish Square of Tehran’s Shemiran district on Monday.
The burial came after a detailed funeral ceremony held in the morning.
The cortege began at the Ministry of Defence in east Tehran, with top state and military officials on hand to pay their respect to a man who played a leading role in bolstering Iran’s defence power and advancing its nuclear energy program.
An honour guard carried the casket containing his remains.
The ceremony was attended by top Iranian officials including Defence Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami and Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
At an outdoor portion of the Defence Ministry, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami, the IRGC’s Quds Force head Brigadier Gen. Esmail Qa’ani, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Sahei and Intelligence Minister Mamoud Alavi sat apart from each other and wore masks due to the coronavirus pandemic as a reciter read several verses of the holy Qur’an.
A message was read out to the ceremony from Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who has ordered officials to identify and punish the perpetrators of the crime and continue his scientific path with diligence.
DM Hatami put his forehead against the casket and kissed it before addressing the ceremony, pledging that the assassination would make Iranians “more united, more determined.”
On Sunday, Fakhrizadeh’s body was flown to the holy city of Mashhad, where it was taken inside the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eight infallible imam of Shiite Muslims.
It was then transferred to the holy city of Qom for a visit to the shrine of Fatima Masoumeh, the sister of Imam Reza (AS) and to the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini outside Tehran.
