Following the summoning, threatening and pressures enforced on the leading Sunni cleric in Taibad, northeastern Iran, the people of this city clashed with suppressive State Security Forces. After setting a Ministry of Intelligence vehicle on fire, the SSF were forced to retreat and accept the protesters’ demands.
Reports indicate following the summoning of Seid Mohammad Movahhed Fazeli, the Friday prayer leader in Taibad, the people of this city on Friday destroyed the closed-circuit cameras installed at the mosque by the MOIS, clashing and beating two SSF agents afterwards.
According to these reports the notorious MOIS agents were forced to retreat due to the people’s protests and asked Seid Mohammad Movahhed Fazeli to hold the prayers.
Mashhad’s Intelligence Dept. had summoned this prominent Sunni cleric on Sunday, 16 Jan 2011, threatening him to stand down as Taibad’s leading prayer cleric. He refused to give in to the clerical dictatorship’s request and said the prayer leader is chosen by the people, not the government.
Meanwhile, state-run media Jahan News very bluntly reported clashes and turmoil in the city, writing: Following recent activities carried out by the supporters of the cleric ‘M. F.’ in the city of Taibad and a number of skirmishes yesterday, it is said that a number of clerics close to Cleric Abdul-Hamid were present in these events.
Admitting to Taibad’s Friday prayer leader being summoned by the MOIS, this state-run media wrote: Cleric Abdul-Hamid in his Friday prayers in the Maki Mosque has followed this policy and once in a while refers to issues regarding the country’s security entities, provoking the prayers against the security apparatus.
The state-run Jahan News website accused the supporters of Cleric Abdul-Hamid in the provinces of Kurdistan, Golestan, Hormozgan and Southern Khorassan to extremism against the clerical dictatorship.