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Khalil Tahmasebi

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Khalil Tahmasebi
Born14 February 1924
Died21 January 1955 (aged 30)
Cause of deathExecution by firing squad
Political partyFada'iyan-e Islam

Khalil Tahmasebi (Persian: خلیل طهماسبی) (14 February 1924 – 21 January 1955) was a carpenter and member of the Iranian fundamentalist group[1] Fadayan-e Islam ("Self-Sacrificers of Islam"[2]), which has been described as "the first Shiite Islamist organization to employ terrorism as a primary method of political activism."[3] On behalf of this group, Tahmasebi assassinated the Iranian Prime Minister, Ali Razmara, on 7 March 1951. He was arrested at the scene.[4] He was described as a "religious fanatic" by The New York Times.[5] In 1952, he was freed by the Iranian Parliament during the premiership of Mosaddegh,[6] his pending death sentence was quashed, and he was declared a "Soldier of Islam."[7] According to Time, Tahmasebi "promptly rushed to the Hazrat Abdolazim shrine, wept joyously and said: 'When I killed Razmara, I was sure that his people would kill me.'"[8] Following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Tahmasebi was re-arrested and tried for the assassination of Razmara; he was executed in 1955.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Denoeux, Guilain (1993). "Religious Networks and Urban Unrest". Urban Unrest in the Middle East: A Comparative Study of Informal Networks in Egypt, Iran, and Lebanon. SUNY series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East. SUNY Press. p. 177. ISBN 9781438400846.
  2. ^ "Ali Razmara – Prime Minister of Iran". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  3. ^ Ostovar, Afshon P. (2009). Guardians of the Islamic Revolution: Ideology, Politics, and the Development of Military Power in Iran (1979–2009) (PDF) (PhD). The University of Michigan. p. 35. The Fada'iyan-e Islam were the first Shiite Islamist organization to employ terrorism as a primary method of political activism.
  4. ^ Clark, Michael (21 April 1951). "Iranian fanatics threaten Premier". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  5. ^ "Premier of Iran Is Shot to Death in a Mosque by a Religious Fanatic; Premier of Iran Slain in Mosque, Cabinet in Emergency Session, Victim of Assassin". The New York Times. Associated Press. 8 March 1951. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  6. ^ a b Zabih, Sepehr (1982). "Aspects of Terrorism in Iran". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 463 (1): 84–94. doi:10.1177/0002716282463001007. JSTOR 1043613. S2CID 145391253.
  7. ^ Taheri, Amir (1986). The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic revolution. Adler & Adler. p. 109. ISBN 9780917561047.
  8. ^ "Iran: Time of the Assassin". Time. 1 December 1952. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2016.