Tehran, February 11: Iranian opposition leaders Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi were attacked and their supporters clashed with police during marches marking the 1979 Islamic revolution Thursday, an opposition website and Karroubi’s son said.
The clashes took place at Sadeghieh square, about a kilometre (mile) from Azadi (Freedom) Square, where hundreds of thousands of Iranians had gathered from early morning to mark the toppling of the US-based dictator the shah 31 years ago.
The cars of the leaders came under attack by police and plainclothes security men but neither was hurt, website Rahesabz and Karroubi’s son Hossein said.
Rahesabz said police had fired teargas at crowds of opposition supporters at Sadeghieh square. The reports could not independently be confirmed as the foreign media has been barred from covering the street marches.
Rahesabz also reported that ex-president Khatami’s brother Mohammad Reza and his wife Zahra Eshraghi, the granddaughter of the Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were arrested by security forces but later released.
Hossein Karroubi said that his father was “not injured but his guards who were accompanying him were.”
“They (police and plainclothes men) fired tear gas and were brandishing knives when they clashed with our supporters” before the cleric Sadeghieh square in western Tehran from where he was supposed to join the marches.
Karroubi’s other son Ali was also arrested, Hossein said.
A witness said that “police also fired tear gas and several rounds from air guns at opposition supporters.”
—Agencies