More than 1,000 people have been detained since riots broke out in the northeastern Iranian city of Sabzevar this week, with fighting continuing Saturday, Iran's opposition Mujahedeen Khalq said.
The Khalq, a major dissident group accused by the Islamic republic of launching counter-revolutionary attacks from bases in Iraq, monitors events in Iran.
At least one young boy was killed and 37 people injured in rioting Thursday sparked by a decision not to name the city a provincial capital, said the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
But in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia, the Iraq-based Mujahedeen said: "Security forces have continued to make large-scale arrests in the past 24 hours. The number of detainees now exceeds 1,000."
The group, which earlier claimed 18 people were killed in the riots, said hundreds of young people on motorcycles rode through the city's streets in the morning and attacked several government buildings with stones and clubs.
A bank was set on fire, after which all banks and government offices were closed.
The statement said Sabzevar residents had declared Saturday a day of mourning to honor those killed in the uprising, and that a large crowd assembled in the city's Grand Mosque to pay homage to the dead.
The Mujahedeen said the city's bazaar and shops were continuing a strike for a third day despite "intimidation" by authorities.
The violence first erupted after some 800 residents of Sabzevar took to the streets over a decision to divide their province of Khorassan into three smaller ones, but not name their city one of the new capitals.
Ten were wounded by gunfire and more than 150 people arrested. Some 34 have been jailed and the rest are being held in temporary detention, IRNA said Friday.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Saturday he would reconsider a redistricting plan in the province of Khorassan.
"No decision has been taken," he told a press conference in Tehran.
"We need serious expertise and we will consult the people. We are going to revise the plan."
The Mujahedeen statement said other cities in Khorassan, including Qaien, Bojnourd and Esfarayen, had also seen disturbances in the past two days.
Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Gholam-Hossein Bolandian vowed to take legal action against the instigators of the riots.
Remarking that the riots had been instigated by certain groups, Bolandian stressed that the interior ministry would pursue those behind these unrest irrespective of the political power camp they belonged to, IRNA quoted him as saying.
Security in the region, he said, could not and would be sacrificed for personal interests.
Bolandian said the security department of the ministry had commissioned a delegation to launch an investigation into the causes of Thursday's riots, and to seek suitable solutions to boost security there – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
