An attack on Iran’s Shah Cheragh shire in the city of Shiraz has left 15 people dead, according to the country’s state media. The Irna news agency reported that three armed men entered the shrine at around 5:45 PM local time and opened fire on the pilgrims present there.

Iranian law enforcement officials have managed to capture two of the three perpetrators and are currently looking for the third. The terrorists were referred to as “takfiri terrorists” by the officials. This term is usually used to refer to Sunni Muslim extremists.

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Irna has also published a number of photographs of the incident, where one can see blood, prayer beads, and broken glass all over the mausoleum’s floor.

Shiraz is a popular tourist as well as religious destination. The last time the city was under a terrorist attack was in 2008, when a bomb planted in a mosque claimed the lives of 14 people.

This incident comes in the wake of huge mass protests that are going on in the country after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died while under law enforcement detention. She was charged with wearing the hijab in an improper manner. The day of the terrorist attacks also marked the 40th day since Amini’s custodial death.

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Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, while saying that the death toll could rise, also blamed the protestors for paving the path for such attacks.

President Ebrahim Raisi has promised that the government will strongly respond to the attacks. His statement read, “Experience shows that Iran’s enemies, after failing to create a split in the nation’s united ranks, take revenge through violence and terror. This crime will definitely not go unanswered, and the security and law enforcement forces will teach a lesson to those who designed and carried out the attack”.