Al-Sarkhi's office stormed in Thi Qar Baghdad – Jaafar Nassrawi Iraqi security forces on Friday arrested Shiite Imam Mahmoud Al-Hassani Al-Sarkhi's religious agent Ali Saray and 50 of Al-Sarkhi’s supporters in Thi Qar, south Iraq, after Saray accused security forces of allowing unknown militias to burn Al-Sarkhi’s office in one of the neighbourhoods in the province, said the imam's spokesperson Mahmoud Saadawi to ‘Arabstoday’.
Thi Qar police stated that a curfew was imposed following an arson attack on Sarkhi’s office in Rifaei while preventing people from approaching the site in order to “avoid escalation of the matter to armed clashes.” Police confirmed the arrest of a number of “suspects”, refusing to give further details.
Saray had released a press statement early on Friday, accusing security forces in the province of “giving the green light to dozens of people to burn [Al-Sarkhi’s] office.” He alleged that a group of about 300 men gathered around the Shiite Imam’s office, threw stones at it and set it on fire while encouraged by security forces present in the area. Five employees in the office were injured, according to Saray’s statement.
Saray added that the office opened almost a week ago, noting that security detained 30 individuals who gathered to pray inside it for three days following its opening, releasing them an hour after their arrest. He stated that security forces “repeated the same action”, by arresting around 70 people who assembled for Friday prayer, only to release them after an hour.
Mahmoud Al-Hassani Al-Sarkhi is one of the most controversial Shiite religious figures in Iraq, who is known for his worsening relations with Shiite religious heads in Najaf province. He was one of the students of late Shiite cleric Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr, father of Sadrist leader Muqtada Al-Sadr. However, Al-Sarkhi split from the Sadrist movement in 2003 and proclaimed his own religious outfit.
Al-Sarkhi declared himself as a Grand Ayatollah and a religious reference without prior permission from other religious heads, as is the norm, drawing criticism from major Shiite figures.
He stopped appearing in public since 2004, following an attempt by the US forces to arrest him in Karbala on charges of killing a number of US soldiers. Clashes also took place between his supporters and security forces in a number of southern provinces in recent years.