Iranian Students Protest Newspaper Ban; 20 Hurt

Iranian police stormed a Tehran University dormitory hours after students staged a demonstration, provoking clashes Friday that injured at least 20 people, witnesses and officials said.

About 120 students were arrested. More than 1,000 people gathered outside the dormitory in a show of solidarity later Friday, witnesses said.

In a sign of a growing split between reformists, led by President Mohammad Khatami, and conservatives, who run the police and judiciary, two ministries criticized the raid.

The Education Ministry accused police of “preparing the ground for a national crisis,” while the Interior Ministry said all the students who were detained would be released.

Witnesses said the trouble began late Thursday after 200 students protested the Justice Ministry’s ban a day earlier of Salam, a leading moderate newspaper that backs Khatami.

When they returned to their dorm, the demonstrators were attacked by hard-line activists who support the ban, witnesses said.

“They attacked our dormitory at midnight and threw tear gas,” a student said. “Then they started beating us with clubs.”

In a statement to the state-run Islamic Republic New Agency, or IRNA, the Education Ministry blamed the showdown on the “violent intervention of law enforcement forces.”

An Interior Ministry spokesman accused hard-liners of hurling stones at the dorm and breaking windows, IRNA reported. The spokesman criticized the police for intervening without the Interior Ministry’s permission, IRNA said.