PM Shehbaz to attend Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral ceremony in Tehran today

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Tehran on Wednesday (today) for a one-day visit to attend a funeral ceremony of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and other state officials who died in a helicopter crash in the mountains of the East Azerbaijan province on Sunday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will lead the congregational prayers of Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdullahian and others in Tehran. 

News of Raisi’s demise plunged citizens in Mashhad and Qom into grief, while a five-day period of mourning is being observed nationwide.

A burial procession took place today at 7:30am from the University of Tehran toward the Azadi Square, accompanied by mourners.

A ceremony honouring the martyrs will be held at 04:00pm. PM Shehbaz and Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the memorial along with other foreign dignitaries.

Ebrahim Raisi will be laid to rest in his hometown of Mashhad, near the shrine of Imam Reza (R.A). 

The funeral prayers of the late Iranian President and his colleagues were also performed in the northern cities of Tabriz and Qom on Tuesday.

After the death of Ebrahim Raisi, Vice President Mohammad Mokhbar has taken over the presidential duties. Presidential elections will be held in Iran on June 28.

The 63-year-old President was in Azerbaijan early on Sunday to inaugurate a dam alongside his counterpart Ilham Aliyev. After the ceremony, Raisi and his entourage departed in a convoy of three helicopters to inaugurate another project, losing contact shortly after departure.

"At around 1 pm, the president left Tabriz to inaugurate two projects, but the helicopter lost contact shortly after leaving," the head of the search and rescue teams, Mohsen Mansouri told the media.

Iran's Interior Minister attributed the crash to foggy weather. State media reported that rescuers located the helicopter's wreckage after a Turkish Akinci drone identified two "heat sources" in the village of Tawal.