Hard-Liners Attack Students at Reform Rally in Iran

Scores of hard-line Islamic militia members, some brandishing sticks, attacked students at a Tehran university Monday as they held a rally calling for political reforms, witnesses said.

The violence erupted when one of the speakers at the Amir Kabir University of Technology rally said Iranians are “paying the price of our fathers’ mistakes.”

The hard-liners -- angered by the apparent insult to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought clerical leaders to power -- reportedly attacked the podium, broke the microphone and started punching students, beating them with sticks and using pepper spray on their faces.

The students fought back, and at least six students and one hard-liner were injured in the violence, the witnesses said.

“Some 150 hard-liners attacked the gathering and beat the students and also took away some others,” said Sajjad, a student leader who declined to give his last name.

Political tension has been growing since last month, when the country’s hard-line judiciary sentenced reformist academic Hashem Aghajari to death for questioning clerical rule.

The verdict, which is under review, has sparked the largest protests for reform in more than three years. Students have staged almost daily gatherings demanding the release of political dissidents as well as reforms in a country where President Mohammad Khatami’s efforts to improve democracy and social freedoms have been blocked by powerful conservatives.

A survey by the Iran Student Polling Center found 78% of Tehran residents thought Khatami should take a tougher line with his political adversaries.