Police in Iran are detaining eighty demonstrators in the northeastern province of Khorasan after a legal protest against its reorganization was marred by rioting, a Tehran daily said Wednesday.
100 people were arrested after Monday's demonstration in the town of Quchan, but twenty of them were later released without charge, the Tosseyeh newspaper reported, citing municipal governor Amir Movahedizadeh.
Police intervened to disperse the demonstration, which had prior authorization from the interior ministry, after youngsters erected roadblocks of burning cars and tires, the paper reported.
It was the latest in a string of angry protests to have hit Khorasan province over the past year, after the authorities announced plans to divide the sprawling province up into three smaller ones. The battle to join the main regional center of Mashhad as a provincial capital inevitably left disappointed candidates amongst the region's smaller cities, including Quchan.
In Sabzevar, another Khorasan town that did not make the grade, violent protests in August last year left at least one person dead, according to media reports. A total of 154 demonstrators were arrested there, of whom 34 were eventually sent to jail. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
