A massive police deployment in Tehran prevented large-scale protests yesterday although Iranian opposition websites reported stray clashes but officials said the capital remained calm.
Iran’s Fars news agency, meanwhile, said Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was briefly arrested while “leading anti-revolutionaries and rioters” in Tehran.
Witnesses said a heavy deployment of riot police and Basij militiamen in key squares of Tehran such as Haft-e Tir ensured that anti-government demonstrators were unable to stage significant protests.
Tehran was the epicentre of deadly anti-government protests in 2009 after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election and also saw clashes last Monday during a demonstration in which two people were killed.
Yesterday, supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had called for fresh demonstrations and tried to stage them, their websites said. The two men refuse to acknowledge Mr Ahmadinejad’s presidency.
Police maintained that Tehran stayed calm.
“The situation in Tehran is normal and police has been deployed in Tehran ... There were no special problems security-wise,” said Ahmad Reza Radan, the deputy chief of Iran’s police force, quoted by ISNA news agency.
In a separate report on Fars he blamed US and Britain for what he said were “sporadic gatherings of monafeghins (hypocrites),” a term Iranian officials use to refer to members of the outlawed group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran.
Tehran traffic police chief Hossein Rahimi gave a similar account to state news agency Irna, saying traffic was “heavy... but flowing” in the Iranian capital.
Several opposition websites and witnesses said scattered demonstrations were staged in Tehran and some even resulted in clashes between police and protesters.
“Police fired tear gas as a cat-and-mouse game (between police and demonstrators) began in Vali Asr Square” of Tehran, said the website Rahesabz.net, citing witnesses.
Crowds of demonstrators were also seen in other Tehran squares and some streets, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest), according to Mr Karroubi’s website.
Fars reported Rafsanjani’s daughter was arrested in the capital but later released.
“Faezeh Hashemi, who was arrested as she led a number of anti-revolutionaries and rioters while claiming to purchase clothes in Vali Asr Street, has been released,” the report said.
Earlier, Fars and Irna reported Ms Hashemi’s arrest for “provocative behaviour.”
She was “identified and arrested by police in Vali Asr street while intending to make harsh comments and chant provocative slogans and create a disturbance,” Irna said.
Mr Rafsanjani himself has come under harsh criticism from conservatives who demand that he publicly condemn opposition leaders.
The cleric and former two-time president had reportedly supported Mousavi in 2009 election.
Witnesses and opposition website Kaleme.com said men on motorbikes were riding around parts of Tehran “in a show of strength ... to intimidate people and prevent them from holding large gatherings.”