The body of Mohsen Pezeshkpour, the founder of the Pan-Iranist party, was buried yesterday in secret on orders of ministry of intelligence officials at Beheshte Sakine cemetery in Karaj, as security agents had cordoned off the area.
Pezeshkpour passed away on January 6, 2011 in his sister’s house in Tehran after a three-year battle with an illness. He was 83 when he died. Trained as an attorney and jurist, he also became a member of the Majlis – Iran’s parliament - and made one of his famous speeches opposing the independence of Bahrain in the assembly.
The ideological foundations of Pan-Iranist party were laid on September 6, 1941 and the party was officially established six years later on September 6, 1947 under the leadership of Mohsen Pezeshkpour, Mohammad-Reza Amoli Tehrani, Ali-Naghi Alikhani, Dariyush Homayun and Hossein Tabib. In 1951 it began its political activities and had representatives in the different sessions of the Majlis. After the 1979 revolution, the party moved out of the country and today it continues its activities both inside and outside Iran.
Pezeshkpour who returned to Iran a few years ago
His family had decided to carry Pezeshkpour’s body in the company of friends and acquaintances from his sister’s house to Pastor Hospital and had selected Monday as the day of burial. But a few hours after his death, security agents announced to his family that they were banned from observing any ceremony else they would be confronted by security agents. On orders of the ministry of intelligence, only his close family members were allowed to transfer the politician’s body to the morgue. Of the hospital. Therefore, on Monday a group of individuals transferred the body of the founder of Pan-Iranist party to the hospital as they sang “Oh Iran” under the watchful eyes of security agents and officials.
On Saturday evening, agents from the ministry of intelligence contacted Zahra Safarpour, the current secretary general of the party and summoned her to appear on Sunday. In that meeting, the head of the party and Pezeshkpour’s family members were told to bury Pezeshkpour’s body on Sunday evening, in secret and at night, otherwise the agents would take the body from the hospital themselves and bury it somewhere and inform the family ten days later of the burial location. The followed obeyed the orders and buried their loved one in Karaj as security agents watched the event.
