Top Khomeiny supporter shot

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 8

Top Khomeiny supporter shot

NZPA-Reuter Teheran One of the most eminent supporters of Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, has been shot and wounded in an assassination bid, according to official reports. Two young gunmen, riding a red motor-cycle in the city of Shiraz, fired at Ayatollah Rabbani Shirazi, personal representative of Ayatollah Khomeiny in the central province of Fars, and a bullet hit him in the neck, the reports said. Ayatollah Shirazi escaped with light injuries and said in a radio statement from his hospital bed: “The bullet ...

just missed my jugular vein.” Using the ruling clergy’s usual expression for Leftists, he added: “I think it was the work of grouplets.” The evening newspaper, “Etelaat,” reported from

Shiraz that responsibility for the attack had been claimed for Forqan, a shadowy group apparently dedicated to killing prominent members of the' Muslim Shiite clergy which has ruled Iran since the overthrow of the Shah two years ago. In a statement spotlighting mounting concern over political violence, President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr termed the murder attempt “a clarion call of danger, a warning to society about .the spread of terrorism.” Mr Bani-SadFs warning, in a telegram to Ayatollah Shirazi, was the latest in a* string of gloomy statements about political violence and growing polarisation. Ayatollah Khomeiny sent a message to Ayatollah Shirazi, his long-time associate, calling the would-be assassins “deviated elements:’