Tehran, Iran — Police on Saturday arrested dozens of pro-clergy militants who attacked university dormitories and beat up students critical of clerical rule.
The judiciary — which is controlled by hard-line clerics and usually sides with them against Iran's reform movement — ordered the arrests, after increasing calls by reformers for action against the militants.
The arrests came after four consecutive nights of violence by the militants, who pledge allegiance to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The militants have been trying to intimidate young protesters who have held nightly demonstrations this week calling for an end to the hard-line clerical establishment led by Khamenei.
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Across the city Friday night, militants beat pedestrians with clubs, brandished knives, fired machine guns in the air and hurled rocks at homes. Dozens of militants stormed at least two university dormitories, beating up students in their beds and taking several of them away.
Mojtaba Najafi said about 200 students were sleeping in their rooms in the Hemmat dormitory of Allameh Tabatabai University, when the attacks began. He said over 50 students were injured and taken to the hospital and about two dozen had disappeared after the attack.
"We were sleeping in our beds. Suddenly we heard windows being smashed," Najafi said. "It was the most brutal way of attacking a human being. They beat up the guard before entering our dormitory. They see no borders, no limits."
On Saturday, the judiciary announced the detentions, saying "scores of people who suspiciously attacked a dormitory and inflicted damages have been identified and arrested."
"Most of detainees are ruffians with previous (police) records," the statement, aired on state-run Tehran radio, said, giving no further details.
Among those arrested was Saeed Asghar, a militant leader who two years ago shot and seriously wounded a top adviser to reformist President Mohammad Khatami.