Iranian opposition leader attacked at Sharif Univeristy

Mehdi Karroubi at Sharif University yesterday

Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi was attacked by a group of plain clothes pro-government elements at Sharif University yesterday.

Karroubi’s website, Saham News reports that while the opposition leader was attending the funeral of a reformist figure at the university mosque, he was confronted by what they described as a group of “Basij thugs, yelling in a drunken brawl” and thus had to leave the ceremony.

In the past weeks, Mehdi Karroubi was also attacked by the plain clothes forces while he was visiting with the senior Shiite leader, Ayatollah Sanei in Qom. While the home of the reformist cleric was surrounded, Karroubi’s car was also damaged in the attack.

Mehdi Karroubi described yesterday’s incidence in an interview at Saham News as “the attacks and repeated insults of a group of paid and salaried thugs who don the Basij uniform.”

The former speaker of the Islamic Parliament claimed that while in the rule of the monarchy there was one famous thug used by the government, now the government is training hundreds of them.

He added: “Now in the universities Basij forces attack university students, they beat people in the mosques, they cheat in elections and kill people on the streets.”

While Mehdi Karroubi has been attacked repeatedly in the past year of protests against the alleged fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the attacks have increased since the disputing candidate of the election has publicly criticized the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Most recently Karroubi responded to the Supreme Leader’s call for unity saying unity cannot be achieved through “violence, threats and arrests.”