Opposition leader shot at by government supporters

Rejanews, attack on Mehdi Karroubi's car

Opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi was once more attacked by a pro-government crowd on a trip to Qazvin. Etemad-e Melli news outlet, Saham News reports that his car was shot at by a group of government supporters in plain clothes.

Reportedly, Mehdi Karroubi was impeded from attending a mourning ceremony for the Shiite month of Moharram by a gathering of these plain clothes forces.

The head of Etemad-e Melli Party, was invited to Qazvin by Qazvin Member of Parliament, Nasser Ghavami. Saham news describes Mehdi Karroubi’s attackers as “mercenary forces hired by Basij and Revolutionary Guard Corps” who arrived in minibuses. They threw rocks and bricks at the opposition leader’s building.

The report adds that some of the armed individuals in the crowd also “threatened” Mehdi Karroubi to exit the building. He finally left the building after four hours when anti-riot police arrived to disperse the crowd.

Mehdi Karroubi claimed that he left Qazvin to avoid compromising the security of the residents. He added: “If my security personnel were to engage them, they would have had to shoot, and unlike the rabble who can shoot without any fear of reprisal, my supporters would be summoned to court for shooting in my defense.”

State supported Fars reported that the crowd called Mehdi Karroubi a “foreign element" and cursed the other opposition figures, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami and MirHosein Mousavi. Fars also claimed members of Karroubi’s Etemad-e Melli in Qazvin have announced that they may be ending their membership in the party.

Mehdi Karroubi is one of the disputing candidates of the June presidential elections. The opposition claims Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election was secured through vote rigging.

He has been an outspoken critic of the alleged fraud and the government’s subsequent suppression of protesters as well the violent treatment of the detainees who have been reportedly tortured and abused for their role in election protests.

Mehdi Karroubi has been physically attacked by pro-government forces on several occasions in recent months.