Iran Hard-liners Attack Students, Dozens Hurt

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Hard-line vigilantes attacked a student pro-democracy rally with teargas, sticks and stones, as Iran's ''press wars'' spilled over onto the country's biggest campus, witnesses said Friday.

Students interviewed at the scene of the clashes at the Tehran University dormitory complex, which started late Thursday, and at a nearby hospital said dozens of students were injured and at least one may have been killed.

An ambulance driver at the scene told Reuters he had been told of one death, but there was no official confirmation.

The witnesses said the attacks began when Islamic hard-liners of the Ansar-e Hezbollah group broke up a rally demanding the lifting of a ban on the leading moderate daily Salam, which backs President Mohammad Khatami.

``Closing Salam was an attack on Khatami, which was an attack on the people,'' said one student, as she surveyed a line of riot police blocking the main entrance to the dormitory complex in west Tehran.

``To restrict press freedom is to deny democracy,'' said a classmate at the emergency room of nearby Shariati hospital, where he was treated for facial bruises and a sprained wrist. ''President Khatami symbolizes this democracy.''

The student, who declined to give his name, said he saw one colleague in a coma in a room guarded by a policeman. Several police were also injured, interior ministry officials said.

The student protest, involving about 500 people, was sparked by a decision of the conservative Special Court for Clergy to ban Salam indefinitely for disturbing public opinion, endangering national security and violating Islamic principles.

It also followed close on the heels of a vote by the conservative-led parliament to greatly expand restrictions on the reformist press, the centerpiece of Khatami's bid to create a civil society within Iran's Islamic system.

Salam journalists said Friday they were hopeful the ban would be lifted after the intelligence ministry late Thursday withdrew its complaint against the newspaper over the printing of what it said was a top secret ministry document.

The right-wing toughs used teargas to flush out students who had fled inside the hostels and later broke into the complex, setting fire to some of the rooms, witnesses said.

They said police had stood by throughout most of the attacks, stepping in later to arrest a large number of the moderate students.

An official at the interior ministry indirectly criticized police handling of the affair.

``Police, without coordination with the interior ministry, intervened in the clashes and arrested a number of students,'' ministry spokesman Bahaeddin Sheikholeslam told the official IRNA news agency.

He said officials had later decided to free all but the organizers of the rally, apparently held without a permit, and he promised authorities would investigate the incident.