1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing

1981 Iranian Prime Minister's office bombing
The Iranian PM building after the explosion
LocationTehran, Iran
Date30 August 1981 (1981-08-30)
15,[1] 14:45[2] (+3:30)
TargetIranian officials
Attack type
Bombing
Deaths8
Injured23
AssailantsMasoud Keshmiri (agent of MEK)

The office of Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Prime Minister of Iran, was bombed on 30 August 1981 by the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK),[3][4] killing Prime Minister Bahonar, President Mohammad Ali Rajai, and six other Iranian government officials.[5] The briefcase bombing came two months after the Hafte Tir bombing, which killed over seventy senior Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti, then Iran's second-highest official. It is also reported that the director general of the prime minister's administration (as a result of suffocation in the elevator) and an elderly woman bystander outside the building were killed.

According to sources, nobody "knew exactly who had been in the room at the time of the detonation." Eventually, there were three participants that had been unaccounted for that including Masoud Keshmiri, Rajai, and Bahonar. It was later revealed that both Rajai and Bahonar had died in the explosion.[6] According to author Albert Benliot, Ayatollah Khomeini charged the MEK with responsibility for the bombing, "however, there has been much speculation among academics and observers that these bombings may have actually been planned by senior Islamic Republican Party (IRP) leaders, including later Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, to rid themselves of rivals within the IRP."[7]

Afterward, the interim presidential council announced five national days of mourning, and Iran's Parliament selected Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani as the next prime minister. Parliament held an election on 2 October 1981 to elect Bahonar's successor;[5]

Bombing

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Front page of Ettela'at newspaper, reporting the blast.
The Iranian Prime Minister's office after the 1981 explosion.

On 30 August 1981 a bomb exploded in the office of Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Prime Minister of Iran, which killed Bahonar, President Mohammad Ali Rajai and some other officials.

According to the survivors, the bomb exploded when one of the victims opened a briefcase brought by Masoud Keshmiri as an "agent of MEK".[8]

The explosion destroyed the first floor. Due to their severe burns, the corpses were not easily identified. Rajai and Bahonar were identified through their teeth.[6] They had won the election with 91 percent of the vote and had been in power for less than four weeks before the assassination.[8] Their funeral was held the next day with nearly 500,000 attendees.[6]

Prominent officials killed

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  • President Mohammad Ali Rajai
  • Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar
  • Col. Vahid Dastjerdi, chief of Iranian police
  • Abdol Hossein Daftarian[9]

Suspects

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Although no group claimed responsibility for the bombing, it was nevertheless attributed to the MEK.[10] Ann K. Reed notes that Western observers believe the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) was "most likely to have been responsible for the bomb blasts of June 28 and August 30." However, Van England notes that "the explosions were set off by insiders – the first by an accomplice working in the offices of the IRP, the second by the guard in charge of security at Prime Minister Bahonar's headquarters." Mangol Bayat also expressed doubts that the MEK would be capable of the attacks "since infiltration of the regime at the very high level would have been necessary."[11] The Islamic Republic of Iran later claimed that the attack was carried out by MEK agent Masoud Keshmiri, secretary of Bahonar's office and of the Supreme National Security Council,[12] who used a fake passport to escape Iran after the attack.

More than twenty suspects were identified in the subsequent investigation, including Masoud Keshmiri, Ali Akbar Tehrani, Mohammad Kazem Peiro Razawi, Khosro Ghanbari Tehrani, Javad Ghadiri, Mohsen Sazgara, Taghi Mohammadi, and Habibollah Dadashi.[13]

Perpetrator

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The Islamic Republic of Iran identified Masoud Keshmiri (who had served as Bahonar's office secretary for a year prior to the bombing) as the perpetrator. An official in the Prosecutor General's office said that Keshmiri had concealed his anti-government activities so well that a corpse mistaken for his was buried on 31 August with full honors as a martyr of the Islamic revolution.[5]

Abdol Hossein Daftarian was stuck in the elevator after the explosion, where he suffocated to death. The MEK bought some time for Keshmiri by spreading the rumor that the man found in the elevator was actually him. Although the Iranian authorities arrested and executed numerous MEK agents,[8] Keshmiri fled the country using a fake passport.[9]

Aftermath

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Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani elected as prime minister by parliament in 1981

According to Iran's constitution, if the President of Iran was unable to perform his/her legal duties due to impeachment, resignation, absence, illness or death, the president's duties would be handed over to the Prime Minister. However, since Prime Minister Bahonar was assassinated along with president Rajai, Iran's parliament had to elect a new prime minister first.[14] Parliament held an election on 2 October 1981, and elected Mr Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani as Bahonar's successor with 178 votes in favor, 10 votes against and 8 abstentions. Mahdavi Kani introduced a new cabinet; all the positions were similar to the cabinet of Mr Bahoner, the only changes being the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Road Transport.[15] Tehran radio also said that the Islamic Republic would "continue the firing squad executions of opponents blamed for assassinating the original inner circle of the Islamic leadership".[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Shahrivar 8th in the mirror of memories; The hard times of bitter assassinations: Today is the anniversary of the explosion of the Office of the Prime Minister". Farhikhtegan Newspaper (in Persian). Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  2. ^ "The documents of suspects of PM office + Handwriting of the bomber" (in Persian). Fars News Agency. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  3. ^ Newton, Michael (17 April 2014). Famous Assassinations in World History. ABC-CLIO. p. 27. ISBN 9781610692861. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  4. ^ Rubin, Barry; Colp Rubin, Judith (28 January 2015). Chronologies of Modern Terrorism. Routledge. p. 246. ISBN 9781317474654. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d United Press International (14 September 1981). "Iranian Says Secretary to Premier Hid Fatal Bomb in Teheran Office". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  6. ^ a b c Muravchik, Joshua (23 July 2013). Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East. Encounter Books. ISBN 978-1594036798.
  7. ^ Katzman, Kenneth (2001). "Iran: The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran". In Benliot, Albert V. (ed.). Iran: Outlaw, Outcast, Or Normal Country?. Nova. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-56072-954-9.
  8. ^ a b c Newton, Michael (17 April 2014). Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 77. ISBN 9781610692861. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  9. ^ a b "When the secret of prime minister's elevator was decoded". Defa Press. Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  10. ^ Ram, Haggay (Summer 1992). "Crushing the Opposition: Adversaries of the Islamic Republic of Iran". Middle East Journal. 46 (3): 426–439. JSTOR 42763892.
  11. ^ Reed, Ann K. (1 January 1981). "Iran's Mujahideen: At the Center of Opposition". Harvard International Review. 4 (3): 10–12. JSTOR 42763892.
  12. ^ "Iran: Secret agent was bomber". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. 14 September 1981. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  13. ^ "Unsaid facts about Keshmiri, prime suspect of PM office bombing". Political Studies and Research Institute (in Persian). Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  14. ^ "خلأ قدرت پس از ترور شهید رجایی چگونه مدیریت شد؟ +سند". مشرق نیوز (in Persian). 2017-09-02. Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  15. ^ "خلأ قدرت پس از ترور شهید رجایی چگونه مدیریت شد؟ +سند". مشرق نیوز (in Persian). 2017-09-02. Retrieved 2024-07-21.

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