A senior Syrian Shia cleric has been arrested and his son subjected to assault and battery in the Arab country’s southwest as violence retains its hold on the nation following last year’s foreign-backed ouster of Syria’s democratically-elected government, Press TV reported.
Sheikh Adham al-Khatib, who represents the followers of the Household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the country, was nabbed in the city of Sayyida Zainab on Wednesday.
Various other sources confirmed the development, adding that the incident had also featured physical and verbal attack against the cleric’s son, Ja’afar, and the latter’s companion.
The sources identified the location of the arrest as the vicinity of the office of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, a late revered Shia cleric, in the city, which also hosts the Holy Shrine of Zaynab bint Ali (AS), daughter of Imam Ali (AS), the first Shia Imam, and his wife Fatimah bint Muhammad (AS), Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s daughter.
“Yes, these are gangs and militias that have no covenant or charter,” one source wrote in a post on X, former Twitter, in condemnation of the Wednesday assault.
Later, however, other reports indicated that Khatib had been released after a few hours in detention.
The overall situation remains volatile across Syria since the country’s violent takeover by Israeli- and Western-backed militants that took place amid intense Israeli airstrikes against the nation’s civilian and defense infrastructures.
bd-pratidin/GR
