Killing a 50-years –old woman and her five little offspring in Abarqou , Yazd city, by the Baha’is can be considered as one of the hideous measures of the cult during its history. The first question posed by every reader is the reason for aiming a 50-year-old woman and how much has the woman been dangerous for Baha’is? Has she killed just for defending God’s religion and her warning against Baha’ism proselytizing in the village in the religious assemblies? Or has it be considered as a mere crime merged with aversion and false beliefs?

     Abarkouh/ Abarqou

     Abarqou is a city Yazd province, Iran. It is the center of Abarkouh province. It is located at the central part of the province. The province is located at the path of Yazd-Eqlid-Yasouj autobahn. Also, the geographical position of this ancient and touristic city is among the three historical cities of Iran: Isfahan, Yazd and Shiraz; so that it is nearly located at the middle of these three cities which have made a triaugle. According to the announcement by the cultural heritage, handicrafts and tourism office, the city is considered as one of 14 model tourism cities of Iran due to its natural and ancient monuments. The city possesses 400 historical works out of which 123 ones have been recorded in the Iranian national work lists.

     The description of the events

     At midnight, Day, 13, 1328 S.H. several Baha’is attacked to a religious , poor, old woman’s house intrigued by the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city in a village called “Robat” near Abarqou city, Yazd. The old woman was Soqra Khanom who was active against Baha’is. The Baha’is killed her and her five offspring (Ma’soumeh 15, Khadijeh 11, Bibi 8, Ali Akbar 6 and etc.) in bed with spade and crane. According to the indictment written by the public prosecutor of Yazd city (Seyyed Muhammad Jalali) against the accused following the tragic event (refer to the national union newspaper- 1328 S.H. No. 24, 25) the killed people’s lips, mouths and jaws had been struck. After the event, Abarqou became one of the centers for the Baha’is activities. The indictment of the public prosecutor of Yazd city (Seyyed Muhammad Jalali) included a detailed explanation of the identity and function of the inciters and agents of the calamity.

     At the middle of the solar month of Mehr, 1329 S.H. seven Baha’is were captured accused by participating in the above-mentioned murders. The prime minister (Razm Ara) issued an order to the minister of justice to investigate Abarqou case. At the end of the solar month of day, 1329 S.H. the case transferred from Yazd court to Kerman one. In 1330, Farwardin, the case was transferred to Tehran along with 15 accused people of the case. It was provided that they were tried in the first branch of the criminal supreme court. Eventually, in spring, 1333, the Baha’is trial started. In Ordibehesht, the judge determined for the criminals to be punished including executing one of them in the crime position. During the Baha’is of Abarqou trial in Tehran city, Hajj Khodadad Saber Lankarani (the distinguished attorney and the former chairman of the peace court) accepted to be the lawyer of the killed people’s family and defended them bravely.

     The “Ebrat” Museum of Abarkouh is the quiet spite of the Muslim people of Iran opposing the deviant cult of Baha’ism. Today, Abarkouh people shouted their quiet spite against the Baha’is after 64 years.

     Roqayyeh Hosseiniyan, the only survival of the family narrates: “I was there at night. Forty night had been passed since I got married. The family insisted me to stay there; but I refused because my husband was going to travel.”

     She has a bloody narration about that day followed by the whimpers of the participants of the inaugural ceremony of Abarkouh Ebrat Museum in the house where sees the bloody event of that night: “Blood was dripping from the handles and locks. Inside the house gave out the blood smell. Everyone had been murdered differently. One of them had been killed in the cloth-weaving workshop and the other into the large earthenware jar and some in the verands.”

The photos taken from Ebrat Museum displaying

     The restorated scene of the Baha’i crime:

     The elder have narrated for us that the people of Abrakouh had feared too much. After a while, it would be clear that the murders had been done by the Baha’is.

     It is said that: The mother of the family has over and over cried to prevent the activity of the cult in the meetings despite of being merely two Baha’i families in the city. She has asked the scholars to stop the deviant cult. The issue had also posed in the religious gatherings.

     The agents of this savage crime fled to an unknown destination for several months; but Pahlavi regime was forced to capture the Agents due to people’s sensitivity. With regard to the clear confessions of Shirwani and despite of the attempts of the organization of the deviant cult to deviant the case trend, Shirwani was eventually executed and his assistants were imprisoned. They managed to get free from the prison forced by the organization of the Baha’is assemblies of America in Shahriwar, 1331. Unfortunately, the ambiguous notes of the event remained hidden. In 1384, the penal context of the case was published in the Keyhan newspaper. One of the hidden notes in the case and its indictment is Shoqi Effendi’s order for perpetration of the savage murder. Following the issued order from London concerning this issue that the Baha’ism proselytizing must be actively and expansively done across Iran, the cult tried hard to attract more people to the organization . in the meantime, The Baha’i assembly of Yazd city whose chairman wsa Soltan Nik Aeen selected Abarqou village as one of the proselytizing aims. It commissioned an assembly in Isfand Abad, Yazd city headed by Shamsi and asked Tehran assembly for personnel and missionaries to start the proselytizing measures of the cult.

     The indictment of the public prosecutor of Yazd province against the accusers of Abarqou tragic murder

     At the night of the solar month of day, 13, 1328 S.H., a tragic murder has happened in Abarqou (218 Km from Yazd city) in a farm land known as Robat in which nearly four families settled. Six people have been significantly tragically murdered. Thus, Soqra who was 50years of age and her five minor offspring called Ma’soumeh 15, Khadijeh 11, Bibi 8, Ali Akbar 6 who were living with their murdered mother penuriously and indigently; but magnanimously and were earning a living by baking bread, carding cotton. At the mentioned night when the murdered were resting and sleeping deeply due to the daily fatigue, Muhammad Shirwani and his brother Muhammad Hussein and Ahmad Nekouee and his offspring Ali Muhammad along with three Baha’is from Isfand Abad who haven’t been identified yet and the case has remained open for them and for one the inciters of the murder called Jalal Binesh murdered Soqra and her offspring intrigued by Hajj Mirza Hassan Shams, the chairman of Isfand Abad Baha’i assembly and Abbas Ali Pour Mahdi who had been dispatched to Abarqou following the secretful orders and also intrigued by nine members of Yazd city assembly whose name will be mentioned later. It was said that Soqra was murdered because she was cursing the Baha’is. When the religious preachers was busy preaching, she was cursing Abbas Effendi and the Baha’i heads with a loud voice and because Muhammad Shirwani was her neighbor and was one the bigoted Baha’is who has torn and burned the holy Quran according to his wife’s narration and since the murdered Soqra knew that Muhammad was a Baha’i person she was cursing the Baha’i heads nights and days? According to the inquisitor, Muhammad was suffering from the event very much and because Abarqou was a place in which Muhammad didn’t have the freedom of action and couldn’t formally introduce himself as a Baha’i he took vengeance of Soqra and her offspring. Soqra’s measures were great obstacles for the assembly in Abarqou to be established and they couldn’t proselytize. Muhammad Ali Sebet who had been dispatch from Abbas Ali to Abarqou the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city wasn’t also successful because of Soqra’s measures. According to the members of Yazd city assembly, after the people of Yazd city figured out that Muhammad Ali Sabet had come to Yazd city assemblt as the Baha’i missionary, they threatened to death. So, he was obliged to pick up his wife and came back to the city by motorcycle and reported the event to the assembly. In 1327, Hajj Mirza Hassan Shamsi- the chairman of the Baha’i assembly of Isfand Abad- sent a person called Salimi as a missionary. Because of the measures of Abarqou residents and going Mr. Seyyed Muhammad Qayyoumi to Isfand Abad as a preacher forced the above-mentioned missionary to escape.

     These events cause the Yazd and Isfand Abad assemblies harored enemy against Abarqou residents who were Muslims and were preventing every kind of proselytizing. This time, the assembly took dangerous actions. It dispatched Abbas Ali Pour Mahdi secretly to Abarqou city and gave him a sum of money and Abbas Ali had secret social intercourses to Isfand Ababd and Yazd cities and kept in touch with Hajj Mirza Hassan Shamsi Isfand Abadi, the chairman of the Baha’i assembly of Isfand Abad and the members of Yazd assembly. He had secret social intercourses with Muhammad Shirwani and intrigued him to commit that tragic murder. According to the inquisitor, the accused entered into Soqra’s house. They murdered three people who had slept in the verands mercilessly and cruelly with spade, axe and crane. Soqra and her two sons who were 14 and 6 years of age were in the room. According to the statement by one the accused, Ali Muhammad, they woke up fearfully and anxiously and blocked the room door in order to prevent us entering the room; but we injured some of them with the spade handle inserting under the door. They couldn’t resist. The accused expressed: Open the door, we are thieves. You are secure. When they entered, they murdered Soqra and her two sons unmercifully and cruelly with spade, axe and crane. Due to the severe strokes, blood had ejected and splashed on the ceiling, walls and doors. The room resembled a slaughterhouse which was full of blood. The most powerful people become  painful and grieved due to watching the dreadful scence or hearing the event involuntarily. According to the case contents and the inquisitor, the tragic crime was done intrigued by nine members of Yazd city assembly and Hajji Mirza Hassan Shamsi, the chairman of Isfand Abad Baha’i assembly and Abbas Ali Pour Mahdi who had been dispatched by the Yazd city Baha’i assembly. If the event hadn’t been discovered, other people would have been murdered due to Yazd city Baha’i assembly instigation. Because it wasn’t the first time for the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city to issue the assassination and murder orders. For instance, several years ago, an innocent person called Muhammad Fakhkhar was living in Yazd city. Because he had cursed the Baha’i heads, some people knocked his house door at the middle of the night and he was said somebody has a word with you. They deceived him. When he came out of his house, he had been taken to another quarter forcefully. They grasped his mouth with a handkerchief in order not to ask for help. Then, they suffocated and threw hi, into the firewoods near the brick-kiln and burned his body. The crime was prosecuted by a judge called Zahedi, the then brave and chaste inquisitor and consequently Mr. Reza Lotfi was commissioned to investigate the case. Both of them left nice deeds as reminders. Sultan Nik Aeen (Jalal Binehs’s brother), the former chairman of the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city and several Baha’i heads were sentenced and imprisoned. Consequently, because of the above0mentioned reasons and because it was examined that the residents of Abarqou city couldn’t tolerate such proselytizings, Soleyman Salimi, the missionary dispatched from Tehran city wasn’t allowed to stay at Isfand Abad and Muhammad Ali Sabet’s –another Baha’i missionary dispatched to Abarqou city before Abbas Ali Mahdi Pour by the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city –house was surrounded by people and he was threatened to death. He was forced to escaped at night, in winter along with his wife with motorcycle. He reported the event to the assembly. Nevertheless, the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city didn’t quit being obstinate and they knew their measures would lead to murders; but they paid a sum of money to Abbas Ali Pour Mahdi and dispatched him with secret orders. The crime was committed by Muhammad Shirwani and other accused people. After the crime, Abbas Ali came to the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city and reported the event in details in the presence of all members of the assembly. Abbas Ali was ordered to come back to Abarqou city in order for the crime nit to be discovered.

     Thus, according to the above-mentioned reasons and all the available reasons in the case, it is certain that nine members of the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city involve in Abarqou murder as inciters:

     The murder impellers

1)   Mahmoud Meshki, late Muhammad’s offspring, 46, businessman, educated, married, from Yazd city, resided at Khalafkhan Ali quarter. He has introduced his religion as Baha’i. he has been arrested since 1329/07/06 till now.

2)   Badiullah Effnan, Hajj Seyyed Hussein’s offspring, 52, educated, businessman, married, Baha’i, from Yazd city, from Iran, resided at Gazargah quarter. He has been arrested since 1329/07/08.

3)   Gholam Hussein Salekian, Hassan’s offspring, a weaver, educated, 50, from Yazd city, resided at Gazargahkeh quarter, Baha’i, married, form Iran. He has been arrested since 1329/07/06 till now.

4)   Isfandiyar Majzoub, Hormozdiyar’s offspring, 53, educated, married, a tailor, from Yazd city, resided at Khalaf Khan Ali quarter, from Iran. He has introduced his religion as Baha’i. he has been arrested since 1329/07/06 till now.

5)   Muhammad Ali Fallah (Effnan), late Muhammad Baqer’s offspring, educated, 55, from Yazd city. Resided at Darband Kashiha, married, from Iran, Baha’i, arrested since 1329/07/028 till now.

6)   Abdul Khaleq Malahoutiyan, Mulla Abdul Ghani Ardakani’s offspring, 65, physician, educated, married, form Yazd city, resided at Gazargah quarter, Baha’i form Iran. He has been arrested since 1329/07/08 till now.

7)   Habibullah, Ra’fati, Yahya’s offspring, 42, the employee of finance office of Yazd city, married, educated, from Yazd city resided at the new Bazar quarter, Baha’i, arrested since 1329/07/07 till now.

8)   Keykhosrow Rasti, Master Mehraban’s offspring, the physician of the public health in Shiraz city, from Yazd city, resided at Shiraz city, from Iran, Baha’i, arrested since 1329/08/07 till now.

9)   Muhammad Menshadi, Baqer’s offspring, the physician of the public health of Yazd city, resided at Fahadan quarter, from Iran, Baha’i. he is free on bail. He has been an impeller regarding Abarqou event. Everybody’s action is in conformity with the article 28 of the public punishment acted is asked for punishing them.

     Two other impellers:

10) Abbas Ali Pour Mahdi, Hajj Mahdi’s offspring, 65, uneducated, from Yazd city, resided at Khajeh Khezr quarter, married. He has introduced himself as Muslim. According to the case content, he has been dispatched to Abarqou by the Baha’i assembly as emigration. He possesses Baha’ism ID number “104”. He has been arrested since 1329/11/06 till now due to the following reasons:

     Although before Abbas Ali dispatched to Abarqou, the Baha’i assembly of Yazd city had dispatched Hussein Ali Sabet to Abarqou city as a proselytizer and had been severely disagreed by the residents of Abarqou city. Mahmoud Meshki, one the accused and of the members of Yazd assembly has expressed on page 226, line 12-15 that after the residents of Abarqou city figured out that he was a Baha’i, they came to his house to kill him. He escaped by a motorcycle with his wife and went to Yazd city. Also, Isfandiyar Majzoub, Golam Hussein Salekiyan and other members of Yazd assembly confirmed the above-mentioned statements. Thus, the members of Yazd assembly urged a missionary being dispatched to Abarqou. Then, the assembly planned dangerously and dispatched Abbas Ali Pour Mahdi via secret orders to frighten the residents of Abarqou. The orders had been top secret. A proces-verbal was usually written for the case when a missionary was dispatched; but because the missionary or; on the other hand, the emigrant had been severely ordered, the process-verbal wasn’t openly written. According to documents, 3500 rials had been given to Abbas Ali and the members of the assembly urged on this issue that the sum was given to him; but they gave extra money to him by the name of sundry expenditures, the passage, and etc. and he was dispatched to campaign against Abarqou residents. He has secretly lived in Abarqou and traveled to Yazd and Isfand Abad because he was ordered secretly. Abbas Ali has kept in touch with Muhammad Shirwani very much. Muhammad Shirwani is one of the ruthless and dangerous accused Baha’i people. Abbas Ali has encouraged him for a while to do such a crime because Muhammad Shirwani is one of the bigoted Baha’is and has burnt the holy Quran. Abbas Ali’s relationships with Muhammad Shirwani were top secret. When Abbas Ali was inquired, he denied being Baha’i and his relationships with the Baha’is. Later on, according to the proselytizing papers of Yazd assembly, he has received Baha’i ID card NO. 104 in 1311 S.H.

     The mentioned ID card has been kept in pages 134 and 135 of the case. Abbas Ali has been one of the main impellers of this unique crime.

     The Pahlavi regime tried hard to hide the crimes of this Zionistic cult in order to curry favor for his western and Israeli lords.

     The case was suspended till 1384 when for the first time, the indictment text of the then public prosecutor of Yazd city was published by the Keyhan newspaper and disturbed the Universal House of Justice organization’s sleep. In order to hide the case, the Baha’ism organization started to spoil the influential newspaper and tried to disturb the community minds especially the Baha’i youth community and to hide the evil and cruel face of the organization.

     Consequently, more than three decades has passed since the Pahlavi regime was overthrown by the great aspiration of Iranian Muslim people led by Imam Khomeyni (P.H.). it is befitting for those memoirs to be repeated and for the real face of the deviant cult of Baha’ism to be revealed in order for the people to know not only Monafeqin organization has assassinated the countless people; but also, the Baha’ism organization headed by Shoqi Effendi and today by the universal house of justice located at Israel has shared these assassinations and crimes, too.