The funeral prayers of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, foreign minister and others who died in Sunday's helicopter crash were performed on Wednesday morning, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei leading the prayers. Raisi will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad.
Earlier, millions of people in Tabriz bid farewell to the deceased. At the Tehran airport, the armed forces presented a guard of honour as the bodies reached. People also visited the shrine of Hazrat Masooma in Qom city. Millions of people in all major cities of Iran expressed their devotion to their leader.
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei held a funeral ceremony at Tehran University. The caskets were covered in Iranian flags and had pictures on them. On President Ebrahim Raisi's coffin was placed a black turban, which showed that he was related to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
“Oh Allah, we didn’t see anything but good from him,” Khamenei said in Arabic in the standard prayer for the dead. He soon left and the crowd rushed to the front, reaching out to touch the coffins. The acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, stood nearby and wept during the service.
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People carried coffins on their shoulders and chanted, "Death to America!" They put them on a semitruck trailer and drove through Tehran to Azadi Square, where Raisi used to speak.
The leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which is a powerful group, were in attendance. Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was also there. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and the Taliban from Afghanistan, including their Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi, were also expected to attend the services in Tehran.
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Iran declared five days of mourning over Sunday’s crash and encouraged people to attend public mourning sessions. Government employees and schoolchildren usually attend such events in large numbers, while others do it out of patriotism, curiosity, or to see historic events.
On Sunday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in steep terrain and freezing conditions, multiple Iranian news agencies report on Monday, adding that search teams found the charred wreckage of the helicopter they were travelling in the province of East Azerbaijan.
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A senior Iranian official told Reuters, "President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash," requesting anonymity due to the delicate nature of the situation.
