Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes on Sunday, an event that sent shockwaves far beyond West Asia. The echoes were heard in India as well, with sections of the Shia community and clerics condemning the death.
In Jammu and Kashmir, home to a sizeable Shia population, demonstrations took place in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk and Saida Kadal, as well as in Budgam, Bandipora, Anantnag and Pulwama. Protesters marched through the streets, beating their chests and raising slogans, while political and religious leaders appealed for calm.
In Lucknow, crowds gathered near the Bara Imambara mosque, holding posters and observing mourning rituals.
Protests were also reported in Ludhiana in Punjab, Ajmer and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, and parts of New Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand and Telangana, where demonstrators voiced anger over the strikes. In contrast, Alipur village in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur district, which Khamenei had visited in the 1980s, observed a voluntary shutdown, with residents announcing a three-day mourning period and suspending public events.
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While Khamenei was born in Mashhad and rose to power in post-revolution Iran, his life and lineage intersected with India in multiple ways, from ancestral ties in Uttar Pradesh to visits to Kashmir and Karnataka in the early years after Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Khamenei’s Kintoor connection
Though Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has no direct Indian ancestry, the clerical lineage behind Iran’s 1979 revolution traces back to Kintoor, a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district, about 70 kilometres from Lucknow.
The village is linked to Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, the grandfather of Ruhollah Khamenei, who was born there in the early 19th century before migrating to Najaf and later settling in Khomeyn, Iran.
Kintoor, once a centre of Shia scholarship in the former kingdom of Oudh, now has only a handful of Shia families.
The Musavi family had originally moved from Nishapur in Iran to India in the early 18th century, settling in Kintoor.
Syed Ahmad’s return to Iran around 1830 reconnected the family to its Persian roots and laid the foundation for the Khamenei lineage that would later lead the Islamic Revolution.
Khamenei’s Kashmir visit
Khamenei also shared a notable connection with Kashmir, stemming from a visit in late 1980 or early 1981. In his memoir, activist Qalbi Hussain Rizvi Kashmiri wrote that the most defining moment of that trip was Khamenei’s participation in Sunni Friday prayers in Srinagar.
He stood alongside Mirwaiz Maulawi Farouq at a prominent Sunni mosque and delivered a brief address — an unprecedented gesture at a time when sectarian divisions between Shias and Sunnis in the Valley ran deep.
Rizvi described how, historically, mistrust between the two communities had been so intense that members of one sect would avoid entering the other’s mosques, and social barriers were rigidly observed.
Against that backdrop, Khamenei’s appearance and speech carried symbolic weight far beyond its duration. According to Rizvi, the gesture helped soften long-standing hostilities and opened space for greater religious interaction. In the months and years that followed, he recalls, it became more common for Shias and Sunnis to pray in each other’s mosques and participate more freely in shared religious spaces — a rare period of inter-sect accommodation that he attributes in large part to the impact of that visit.
J&K CM Omar Abdullah expressed concern over Khamenei’s killing. He said that those mourning his death should be allowed to do so in peace and urged the Union territory’s administration to “exercise utmost restraint and refrain from using force or restrictive measures”.
“I’m deeply concerned about the unfolding developments in Iran, including the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. I appeal to all communities to remain calm, uphold peace, and avoid any actions that could lead to tension or unrest. We must also ensure that those who are mourning in Jammu and Kashmir are allowed to grieve peacefully. The police and administration should exercise utmost restraint and refrain from using force or restrictive measures,” he said in a post on X.
J&K PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti condemned Khamenei’s death terming it a “shameful point in history”.
“Today marks a deeply tragic & shameful point in history with Israel & USA boasting about the killing of Iran’s beloved leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. What’s more disgraceful & shocking is the explicit & implicit support given by Muslim countries who chose convenience & expedience over conscience. History will stand testaments to who fought for justice & who helped the oppressors. Prayers with the people of Iran. May Allah grant them strength & victory over forces of tyranny & injustice,” she said.
Khamenei’s Karnataka connection
Khamenei also had a little-known connection to Karnataka through Alipur, a Muslim-majority village in Gauribidanur taluk of Chikkaballapur district where Shias make up nearly the entire population.
In 1981-82, Khamenei visited Alipur to inaugurate a hospital constructed with assistance from the Iranian government, a moment that cemented the enduring link between the small south Indian village and Iran’s clerical establishment.
The village has long maintained spiritual, cultural and educational ties with Iran, with several institutions set up with support from Iranian agencies.
