Iran has made many arrests in connection with deadly unrest in its south-east and planned violence elsewhere in the country, officials said on Tuesday, 10 days before the Islamic Republic's presidential election. Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said 20-30 people had been detained over street disturbances in the south-eastern city of Zahedan in which six people were killed this week. But a police official said many more had been taken into custody.
State television had reported that clashes between backers and opponents of a Sunni cleric broke out in Zahedan on Sunday, three days after a bombing of a Shi'ite mosque killed 25 people in the city, which is home to many of Iran's minority Sunnis.
Sectarian violence is relatively rare in the officially Shi'ite Muslim country, whose leaders reject allegations by Western rights groups that the country discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.
Officials have blamed both Thursday's mosque bombing in Zahedan and a separate incident two days later, when a bomb was found on a plane, on Iran's foes. One said they wanted to "create a security-threat environment" before the June 12 presidential election.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative who often rails against Iran's Western enemies, faces a challenge in the vote from moderates seeking detente in international relations. Jamshidi said two people were held over Saturday's plane incident, in which Iranian media said security personnel had defused a home-made bomb found on a domestic flight to Tehran.
Separately, 11 people had been detained in the north-western city of Tabriz on accusations that included "gathering with the intention of committing crimes against national security and keeping firearms", Jamshidi said. He did not give details.
Iran's Press TV reported on Tuesday that five people had died in an arson attack on a building in Zahedan during the violence there, but Jamshidi put the death toll at six. The Press TV report said dozens of civilians were also wounded in clashes fuelled by rumours a senior Sunni cleric had been assassinated, but that order had been restored.
In the unrest in Zahedan, "six people were killed and 20-30 people were arrested," Jamshidi told a news conference. Deputy police commander Hossein Sajedi said one of those killed was a policeman, Fars News Agency reported. He said 150 people were held over the unrest, in which cars were torched and shops destroyed. It was not clear whether all of them were still in detention. Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.
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