Iranian officials dismissed the possibility of an attack as
the cause of an explosion that occurred inside a mosque in
The blast occurred at 9 p.m. at the Shohada mosque, where about 800 people had gathered to listen to a cleric speaking about the Wahhabi and Bahaism faiths, which are considered heretical by some Shiites.
On Sunday, the deputy interior minister in charge of security, Abbas Mohtaj, said the blast happened accidentally. Iranian police agreed, dismissing the possibility of a planted bomb.
“This may be the result of negligence,” Ali Mohayedi, police
chief commander for the Fars province told the
Mohayedi also said the police had found remnants of ammunition from a military exhibition titled “Sacred Defense” that had been organized at the mosque not long ago.
Investigation is underway, but no terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion.
“We cannot make any prejudgments regarding the bomb blasts,
and no group has claimed responsibility,”
He also asked the media not to jump to conclusions before the investigation was ready.
Bombings are quite rare in
The Fars news agency, which is semi-official in