TEHRAN: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was laid to rest, concluding days of funeral rites attended by throngs of mourners after his death in helicopter crash, state media reported.

Hundreds of thousands marched in his hometown Mashhad to bid farewell to Raisi ahead of his burial following processions in cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran and Birjand.

63-year-old died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others after their helicopter went down in country’s mountainous northwest while returning from dam inauguration on border with Azerbaijan.

Men and women, who were mainly clad in black chadors and clutching white flowers, crowded Main Boulevard of Mashhad, Islamic Republic’s second city in northeast where Raisi was born. Some held aloft signs paying tribute to Raisi as “Man of battlefield” as large truck carrying his body drove through sea of mourners.

Earlier thousands of people holding images of Raisi and waving flags lined streets of Birjand, capital of eastern province of South Khorasan, for procession of Raisi’s coffin.

Published in The Daily National Courier, May, 24 2024

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