Dubai: The gunman who shot dead 13 people at an important Shia shrine last month was a Tajik, according to Iran's official news agency.
The terrorist Daesh group has been blamed for the October 26 attack on Shah Cherag in Shiraz, one of Iran's top five Shia shrines. Without providing any supporting data, the government has attempted to attribute the attack to largely peaceful anti-government demonstrations.
Iran initially reported 15 deaths in Shiraz, but later lowered the toll to 13 due to a double count. The shooter was identified as Shobhan Komrauni in the IRNA report. He died on October 26, days after the attack, in a hospital in southern Iran from injuries sustained during his arrest.
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According to a report published on Monday, Mohammad Ramez Rashidi, an Afghan national, was the gunman's accomplice. The report claimed that a third suspect from neighboring Azerbaijan was the "chief coordinator" of the attack from the Iranian capital Tehran.
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IRNA said authorities have detained 26 suspects in connection with the attack on the shrine, all of whom are reportedly citizens of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan and are suspected of having links to extremist groups.
Without going into detail, it claimed that some suspects were preparing a similar attack in the country's southeast of Sistan and the city of Zahedan in the volatile province of Balochistan, which only saw deadly unrest last week.
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Iran has sparked anti-government protests since the custodial death in September of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly breaking a strict dress code for women.