Khalil Tahmasebi

Khalil Tahmasebi
Born	14 February 1924 Sublime State of Persia
Died	21 January 1955 (aged 30) Imperial State of Iran
Cause of death	Execution by firing squad
Political party	Fada'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

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. 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.