Today, August 30, marks the anniversary of a bombing in Tehran that resulted in the martyrdom of then President Mohammad Ali Rajaee, Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar, and six other senior Iranian officials.
According to eyewitness accounts, the deadly explosion on August 30, 1981, occurred when one of the victims opened a briefcase filled with explosives, brought in by Masoud Keshmiri, an agent of the Mojahedin e Khalq (MKO) terrorist group.
Mohammad Ali Rajai and Mohammad Javad Bahonar Bahonar are appreciated due to their simple life style, wisdom and close association with public.
Imam Khomeini’s historic message following the martyrdom of Rajai and Bahonar comes as following:
While martyrdom of these two honorable men is difficult for me to tolerate, I know that they have joined the Exalted Friend and are in peace. They no longer suffer such difficulties in which we are still embroiled. They have achieved their ultimate goal. From this aspect I congratulate their families and the great Iranian nation who have offered such martyrs. Although their loss is difficult for us to endure, our country and our nation have stood with full force to offer such martyrs. They have no way for retreating and never think of laxity. The blind hearted ones who have thought that the Islamic Republic would collapse with the absence of a few personalities, they know nothing about Islam, are unaware of faith and indulged in material allurements.
Sahifeh ye Imam, vol. 15, pp. 115 19
Both Bahonar and Rajaee, along with the victims of the Hafte Tir bombing, were buried in the Hafte Tir mausoleum at the Behesht e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran.
After his martyrdom, many places in Iran were named in his honor, including Teacher Training University in Tehran, a power plant in central Qazvin province, a port in southern Hormozgan province, and a dam in northern Mazandaran province.
Bahonar was a distinguished Islamic theologian educated at Qom Seminary and the University of Tehran, where he received his doctorate. He was 47 years old at the time of his martyrdom.
Like Rajaee, after the Islamic Revolution, Bahonar served as Minister of Education and as a member of parliament, representing the people of Kerman and Tehran.
He also served as the Secretary General of the Islamic Republican Party after the martyrdom of Ayatollah Hossein Beheshti and was a member of the Assembly of Experts for the Constitution, which drafted the new Iranian constitution.
Both Bahonar and Rajaee, along with the victims of the Hafte Tir bombing, were buried in the Hafte Tir mausoleum at the Behesht e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran.