Iran news: After the death of Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the process of nearly a week-long state mourning and funeral has started. He will be buried on 9 July in his birthplace Mashhad. Meanwhile, a report in the German newspaper Die Welt has attracted the attention of the whole world. According to this report, Iranian officials are secretly digging thousands of graves even during Khamenei’s funeral program.
Why is there a fear of thousands of deaths?
In fact, officials have feared the death of 1,500 to 3,000 people due to severe chaos, extreme heat and huge crowd. If there is any accident in case of huge crowd gathering at Khamenei’s funeral or there is a large number of dead, these graves are being prepared to bury people easily.
De Velt cited a highly confidential letter written by the Iran Red Crescent and the National Disaster Management Organization to Vice President Mohammad Reza Arif. The letter warned that a deadly combination of crowds of millions expected to gather in the coming days and record-breaking heat could lead to large numbers of casualties.
To deal with this dire situation, thousands of new graves have been prepared in Tehran’s largest cemetery, Behesht-e-Zahra. A municipality employee, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that officials have been given clear instructions that even if up to 3,000 deaths occur due to crowd pressure, the system should not collapse. A special task force has also been formed to manage the dead and missing.
accidents happened before
Actually, behind these secret preparations of the Iranian government, there is an old and painful history of the country. In 2020, at least 56 people lost their lives and more than 200 were injured in a stampede in Kerman city during the funeral of Quds Force commander Qasim Sulemani.
In 1989, the crowd at the funeral of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei also went out of control, due to which 8 people died and hundreds were injured. In such a situation, the administration wants to avoid repeating that history at any cost, especially when the political atmosphere in the country is very sensitive.
2 crore people are expected to participate
It is expected that about 2 crore people will attend the program related to Khamenei’s funeral. More than 11,000 buses and metro services are being run for free 24 hours a day under the leadership of Tehran’s hardline mayor Alireza Jaqani. It is estimated that the budget of this event in Tehran alone is around 15 million euros (about Rs 1.3 billion).
The funeral procession will start from Tehran, go to Qom, Najaf, Karbala and finally conclude in Mashhad on Thursday, where Khamenei will be laid to rest.
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