World

300 arrested after Sufis clash with Iran police, killing 5

February 20, 2018

TEHRAN, Iran — Overnight clashes between followers of a Sufi leader and Iranian police killed five members of the security forces and injured 30, Iranian media reported Tuesday, the latest tension between the mystical order and authorities. Over 300 were arrested.

Supporters of Sufi leader Nourali Tabandeh have been holding sporadic sit-ins near his home in Tehran, worried that the 90-year-old former deputy justice minister after Iran's revolution could be detained by police. That fear stems from the recent January protests in Iran in which police detained Sufis.

Tabandeh has had close relationships with liberal activists.

Earlier on Monday, Sufis had rallied in front of a police station demanding the release of a detainee. They later rallied in front of Tabandeh's home, where police started to try to disperse them. Previous rallies saw Sufi followers carrying clubs and knives, which they used to clash with police.

The semi-official Fars news agency said a Sufi follower rammed a bus into a group of police officers, killing three of them before being arrested late Monday.

The official IRNA news agency on Tuesday quoted police spokesman Gen. Saeed Montazeralmahdi as saying two members of the Basij forces also were killed in a stabbing and another car-ramming attack, which also injured 30. Police arrested over 300 Sufi followers, including the drivers of both vehicles, he said.

Police have blocked off streets to the site of the clash and deployed a number of officers to the area.

In Iran, pressures increased on Sufis during former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government. During Iran's 2009 disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad, Tabandeh supported one of Ahmadinejad's main challengers, Mahdi Karroubi, who has been under house arrests since 2011.

In 2007, Sufis clashed Iranian security forces in the central Iranian town of Boroujerd after authorities decided to close a Sufi lodge. Authorities closed down a similar venue in the holy Shiite city of Qom in 2006.

The demonstrations by the Gonabadi Sufi order, known as dervishes, turned into running clashes with the police in northern Tehran on Monday.

Footage on state television showed a bus ploughing into a group of policemen in northern Tehran, which police said led to three deaths. — Agencies


February 20, 2018
HIGHLIGHTS
World
hour ago

KFC Nigeria sorry after wheelchair user refused service at Lagos airport

World
hour ago

India gangster-politician dies after cardiac arrest

World
hour ago

Russia shuts down UN watchdog tracking North Korea sanctions