Prominent University Scholar Dr. Habibullah Salarzahi Dies Suddenly Under Suspicious Circumstances; Funeral Prayer Held at Makki Grand Mosque in Zahedan

Zahedan (Sunni Online) — Dr. Habibullah Salarzahi, president of the Sistan and Baluchestan Science and Technology Park and a prominent academic figure, passed away on Saturday, September 19, 2026.
The Public Relations Department of the Sistan and Baluchestan Science and Technology Park stated that Dr. Salarzahi died of a “heart attack.”
Saeed Shaikhi, Director of Public Relations at the Sistan and Baluchestan Science and Technology Park, told the official news agency, IRNA: “Dr. Habibullah Salarzahi suddenly suffered a heart condition while visiting construction projects at the Science and Technology Park. Despite immediate medical intervention, he passed away.”
People close to Dr. Salarzahi have rejected this account and called on security authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.
Dr. Salarzahi had served as president of the Sistan and Baluchestan Science and Technology Park since July 2025. More than 70 of his scientific essays had been published in academic journals inside and outside Iran.
The funeral prayer for the late Dr. Habibullah Salarzahi, a faculty member at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan, was held on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at Makki Grand Mosque in Zahedan, in the presence of people from various sectors of society.
His body was subsequently transferred to his ancestral cemetery in Esmailabad, Khash County, for burial.
The funeral was attended by Mohammad Nabi Shaihaki, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education; Engineer Mansour Bijar, Governor of Sistan and Baluchestan; a number of provincial and district officials and administrators; as well as numerous political and cultural figures from the province.
The funeral prayer for Dr. Habibullah Salarzahi was led by Shaikh-ul-Islam Mawlana Abdol-Hamid.
In brief remarks on the occasion and before the funeral prayer, Mawlana Abdol-Hamid spoke about the late Dr. Salarzahi’s character and qualities. He described him as a “religious person” and counted him among the “prominent scholarly figures of the country.”
He described Dr. Habibullah Salarzahi’s death as a major loss for academic and university circles and offered his condolences to the people of the province, the university communities of Sistan and Baluchestan and Iran, and especially to the children and family of the late Dr. Salarzahi.
Referring to the doubts that have arisen concerning Dr. Salarzahi’s death, the president of Darululoom Zahedan described rumors of “suicide” as “unbelievable” to the general public and called on the Provincial Security Council to conduct an “impartial” and “transparent” investigation into the matter and inform the public of “the truth.”