IRAN: Dozens of people were arrested and several hurt in clashes in three Iranian cities yesterday when the anniversary of a dissident's murder added impetus to the largest pro-reform protests for three years.
At least a dozen people, some of them local journalists, were arrested and several attacked by hardline Islamic militiamen in Tehran as about 5,000 people started chanting "Political prisoners must be freed".
In the northeastern city of Mashhad, 60 people were arrested at a pro-reform rally and another 25 were detained in the southern city Shiraz.
The demonstrations followed two weeks of almost daily student protests for free speech and political reform in the Islamic republic where moderate President Mohammad Khatami is locked in a power struggle with hardliners who control key levers of power.
The large Tehran gathering in honour of Dariush Forouhar - a nationalist stabbed to death at home along with his wife in 1998 by rogue Intelligence Ministry agents - was the first reformist rally in the last two weeks not led by students. It was also the first to be forcibly broken up by security forces.
Students have staged two weeks of largely peaceful rallies and class boycotts in support of reformist academic Mr Hashem Aghajari, sentenced to hang for questioning clerical rule.
But the pro-reform protesters were vastly outnumbered by the tens of thousands at Friday prayers in Tehran University where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said pro-US enemies of the state were behind the student protests.
Worshippers, who packed the university and clogged surrounding streets, responded with chants of "Death to America" and "Our leader, we are ready". - (Reuters)