At least nine people died as a mob forced their way into the United States Consulate in Pakistan‘s Karachi on Sunday, per reports. The incident came as tensions escalated in the Middle East following the death of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint military strikes by US and Israeli forces. Reports have also emerged of protesters setting fire to a United Nations office building in Pakistan’s northern city of Skardu, in the Shia-majority Gilgit Baltistan region, known for its Himalayan peaks popular with tourists.
Anger over the assassination of Khamenei, a prominent Shia leader, in the holy month of Ramzan have spilled over to Iraq also, with reports about protesters attempting to enter the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, where the US Embassy is located, as security forces tried to disperse them using tear gas.
Hundreds of protesters ty residents converged on Times Square to protest the wave of deadly strikes ordered by US President Donald Trump on Iran. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the strikes “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression”.
Similar “solidarity” protests have broken out in Baghdad, Iraq, and Srinagar, Kashmir, where Khamenei is viewed as a Marja-e-Taqlid (Source of Emulation).
The protests highlight deep divide across the globe — between those mourning a religious icon and those celebrating the end of a long-standing regime.
Mourners termed Khamenei’s killing as “one of the most tragic events of the century”. Prominent Shia leader Maulana Saif Abbas Naqvi, who led protests in Lucknow, said the development was a moment of grief for Muslims across the globe.
He hailed Khamenei for raising voice against Israel’s oppression of the Muslims of Gaza. Khamenei raised his voice, which is why the oppressive countries became his enemies, Naqvi said, according to Times of India.
“Khamenei spoke for the interests of Muslims all over the world. The entire world also saw how he stood with the oppressed people of Palestine, victims of Israeli oppression,” Naqvi said, according to the report.
Iran views revenge as its ‘duty and legitimate right’, says Pezeshkian
Iran has begun 40 days of mourning over Khamenei’s death, Al Jazeera reported quoting Iranian state media.
Top security officials were also killed in US-Israeli strikes, along with Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The killings mark one of the most significant blows to Iran’s leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has maintained that the retaliatory strikes will continue as Tehran seeks revenge for the killing of Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials is the country’s “duty and legitimate right”.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers seeking justice and exacting retribution from the perpetrators and those who ordered this historic crime to be its duty and legitimate right, and it will devote all its strength to fulfilling this great responsibility and obligation,” the president said, offering his condolences.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: The leader who shaped Iran’s defiance
For many, Khamenei was the religious and political anchor of the Islamic Republic. The 86-year-old was the ideological force behind the revolution that ended the rule of the Pahlavi monarchy. He is credited for shaping the military and paramilitary apparatus that forms both Iran’s defence against its enemies and provides it with influence well beyond its borders.
During his decades-long rule, Khamenei cemented the idea that Iran must remain in a constant state of defence against external and internal threats.
“People think [of Iran] as a theocracy, because he [Khamenei] wears the turban and the language of the state is the language of religion, but in reality, he was a wartime president that came out of war with the assumption that Iran is vulnerable and in need of security,” Vali Nasr, Iranian affairs expert and author of Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
“That the US is hostile to Iran; and that the revolution, the Islamic republic and nationalism, are not separated” and that so, they need to be protected, he said.
Guided by this vision, the IRGC transformed from a paramilitary unit into a dominant political and economic powerhouse, anchoring Iran’s regional influence. Simultaneously, Khamenei championed a “resistance economy” to bypass Western sanctions through self-reliance, while maintaining a staunchly anti-Western stance and aggressively sidelining critics who claimed his militaristic priorities stifled essential domestic reforms.