Khalil Tahmasebi
Shia extremist who assassinated Iranian Prime Minister Ali Razmara in 1951
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Khalil Tahmasebi (Persian: خلیل طهماسبی) (14 February 1924 – 18 January 1956) 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 was waiting in the crowd on 7 March 1951 when Iranian Prime Minister Ali Razmara visited the Shah Mosque for a memorial service, and fired three shots, killing Razmara. He was arrested at the scene.[4] He was described as a "religious fanatic" by The New York Times.[5] In 1952, during the premiership of Mosaddegh, the Iranian Parliament quashed his pending death sentence, and he was declared a "Soldier of Islam."[6][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 1956.[7]
Khalil Tahmasebi | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | 14 February 1924 |
| Died | 18 January 1956 (aged 30) |
Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
Political party | Fada'iyan-e Islam |
