AFP: Iranian police waded into a crowd of mourners at a memorial service for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in Isfahan Wednesday, beating women and children and firing tear gas, an opposition website reported. TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranian police waded into a crowd of mourners at a memorial service for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in Isfahan Wednesday, beating women and children and firing tear gas, an opposition website reported.
The mourners were shouting slogans in support of Iran's opposition Green Movement and several were arrested, Rahesabz.net reported.
"This morning before the ceremony began hundreds of police, security forces and plainclothes gathered around the mosque which led to severe clashes with people," it said.
"So far several have been arrested and many were injured," it added.
Police fired tear gas at people to disperse them, the website said.
"Security forces are beating people including women and children with batons, chains and stones," it said.
The memorial in Isfahan's Seyed mosque was to be led by prominent reformist cleric Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri.
A fierce critic of the clerical regime he helped create, Montazeri, who died aged 87 on Saturday, had many followers in Isfahan province.
The reports could not be independently verified by AFP as foreign media are banned from covering opposition gatherings in Iran.
On Monday, hundreds of thousands of mourners poured onto the streets of the holy city of Qom for Montazeri's funeral, effectively turning the event into a massive anti-government rally.
