Iranian security forces violently suppressed opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan yesterday as tensions increased before nationwide demonstrations planned for this weekend.Two days after massive demonstrations in the holy city of Qom, clashes erupted in Isfahan, IranÂ’s third city, as thousands of mourners gathered for a memorial service for Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the oppositionÂ’s spiritual leader, who died at the weekend. Opposition websites said riot police and Basij militiamen surrounded the Seyed mosque from early in the morning, and then attacked the mourners with batons, teargas and pepper gas.
Many were injured and dozens were arrested, including four journalists and a cleric, Masoud Abid, who was to deliver the sermon. Reformist website Parlemannews reported that more than 50 people were detained.
“Montazeri mourners shouted slogans against the top authorities,” another website, Rahesabz, reported. “They are beating protesters, including women and children, with batons, chains and stones.” Farid Salavati, an Isfahan resident who tried to attend the memorial, said that tens of thousands gathered outside the mosque but were savagely attacked by security forces. He saw baton-wielding riot police clubbing people around the head and kicking men and women, injuring dozens. “I saw at least two people with blood pouring down their face,” he said.
Security forces also sealed off the home of Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, who organised the service and used to lead Friday prayers in Isfahan until he resigned in 2002 in protest at the regime’s growing authoritarianism. “I tried six different ways to get to the mosque, but they were all blocked,” Parlemannews quoted him as saying. “Treating people this way at a memor-ial service is deplorable.”
Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former President, condemned the violence in Isfahan, which is 200 miles southeast of Tehran: “Imam Khomeini [Iran’s revolutionary leader] believed that the Islamic Republic was based on two pillars — freedom and independence.
“If these pillars become shaky . . . we will have tyranny again,” he said. “Calling anyone who raises his voice a traitor, despite him believing in the [Islamic] system, is a major deviation.”
Clashes also erupted in nearby Najafabad, Montazeri’s home town, on Tuesday night and continued yesterday. “The situation is tense in the city. People are chanting anti-government slogans,” Jaras, another opposition website reported. The regime appears to be moving aggressively against the opposition ahead of the emotionally charged holiday of Ashura this weekend, when millions of Shias take to the streets to mourn the 7th-century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, at the hands of the Sunni caliph Yazid.
The so-called Green movement, which has grown adept at hijacking public events that the regime cannot cancel, is planning to turn the day into another massive demonstration. Montazeri’s death will raise the temperature even further, as Sunday will be the seventh day since his death — an important date in Shia mourning ritual.
On Tuesday the regime dismissed Mir Hossein Mousavi, the de facto opposition leader whom Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated in June’s hotly disputed presidential election, from his position as head of Iran’s Academy of Arts — a post he held for ten years. Dariush Ghanbari, a prominent reformist MP, called his dismissal “a political decision stemming from electoral grudges”, and many of the academy’s members were said to be threatening to resign.
Hundreds of Basiji were reported to have attacked the offices in Qom of Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sanei, the reformist cleric who is expected to replace Montazeri as the conscience of the nation and chief clerical scourge of the regime. They broke windows and beat his staff, according to opposition website Norooznews.
Government supporters also staged counter rallies in Qom on Tuesday and yesterday. “This is the last time that something like that will happen in Qom. This is not a place for hypocrites,” Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani told them.