SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Now to South Asia, home to millions of Shia Muslims, and as NPR's Diaa Hadid reports from Mumbai, they have been protesting the killing of Iran's supreme leader, a leading Shia cleric.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Non-English language spoken).
(CROSSTALK)
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: In video from Indian Outlet, ANI, security forces in Indian-held Kashmir fire tear gas grenades at young men.
(SOUNDBITE OF TEAR GAS GRENADE EXPLODING)
HADID: They kicked them back. In the video, a man shouts, traitors.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #1: (Shouting in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Shouting in non-English language).
HADID: A woman echoes that cry at another protest in Kashmir. In a video shared by journalists, she runs to flee tear gas and shouts.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Shouting in non-English language).
HADID: "Whoever is a friend to Israel is a traitor," she yells...
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #2: (Shouting in non-English language).
HADID: ..."Our lives, our wealth, our children, we are ready to sacrifice everything for our ayatollah."
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2: (Chanting in non-English language).
HADID: This was one of many protests in Shia communities in India. Most were peaceful, but the fury was palpable over Khamenei's assassination on Saturday because he was...
SIMON WOLFGANG FUCHS: The symbol of pride and strength.
HADID: Simon Wolfgang Fuchs is an associate professor of Islam at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He says for many Shia minority communities in South Asia...
FUCHS: Iran is a symbol of dignity, of defiance that gives them pride.
HADID: There's also a sense that Iran is a protector of Shia minorities, particularly in neighboring Pakistan, home to millions of Shia and where they have been targets of sectarian violence in the past. And in Pakistan, protests were largely banned on Monday after more than 20 people were killed in demonstrations a day before.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER #3: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: They included 10 people killed in Karachi, where men smashed the outer gate of the U.S. consulate shortly after word spread of Khamenei's assassination. Zahid Hussain writes on the Pakistani military, and he says those protests across Pakistan were the biggest since the current government came to power in 2024.
ZAHID HUSSAIN: I think probably this is the most serious challenge faced by the Persian Treaty.
HADID: The most serious challenge. Critics describe the government as a fig leaf for Pakistan's powerful military, which has cracked down hard on dissent. And yet Hussain says the protesters were chanting against the government because it has publicly embraced the Trump administration. Hussain says that relationship might become a flashpoint if anti-American sentiment spreads. He says protests against America and Israel may well turn against the country's own rulers. Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai.
(SOUNDBITE OF CITY OF THE SUN'S "PERFECT INSTANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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