TEHRAN Mystery is still hanging over the assassination of Dariush Forouhar on Saturday evening, as the Interior Ministry has confirmed that the veteran politician had applied for permission to hold a rally in support of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. Talking to the TEHRAN TIMES, an official at the Interior Ministry said, It is true that Mr Forouhar applied for the rally in support of the Kurdish leader Ocalan, who is now in Italy. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added, The application of Mr Forouhar was under consideration.

He declined to go into further details. Meanwhile, Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi yesterday called for the prompt arrest of those responsible for the stabbing to death of Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh, IRNA reported yesterday. The judiciary head expressed regret over the killing of Forouhar and his wife and ordered the prompt identification and punishment of the perpetrators, IRNA said.

Police said no motive had been established yet for the murder of the couple. In the meantime, an informed source told the TEHRAN TIMES that the assassin or assassins could be friends of the Forouhar family, as they had taken with them to his house a bunch of flowers and a packet of sweets. The killer or killers must have been professional because they sprayed the victims with anesthetic that made the couple unconscious so that they would not shout for help, an informed source told the TEHRAN TIMES. Forouhar's body was found behind a desk in his office with a knife thrust into his heart, while his wife was killed in the same manner elsewhere in the house, the daily Iran quoted a witness as saying.

The Interior Ministry said earlier the bodies were found on Sunday afternoon, but that the two had died hours earlier. Forouhar, 70, and his wife, 58, often criticized the policy of the government through their foreign radio interviews. Forouhar was the leader of the Iran Nation Party, an illegal but tolerated group which has a newsletter. The party of Forouhar advocates a secular system for ruling the country.

Forouhar was one of the few old-time opposition leaders who had not gone into exile and had continued to speak out in Iran, Reuter in its report commented. He spent several years in jail during the rule of the Shah's regime, then briefly joined the Islamic Republic and served as labor minister in the first government after the 1979 Islamic Revolution which toppled the Monarchy. Forouhar was a close associate of the late prime minister Mahdi Bazargan, whose liberal Islamist Cabinet served for nine months after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution. In the 1950s, he was an ally of the late nationalist leader Mohammad Mossadeq. Meanwhile, Mohsen Pezeshkpour, the leader of Pan-Iranist Movement, in a telephone conversation with the TEHRAN TIMES said, anti-Iran elements are responsible for the martyrdom of the Forouhars, adding Mrs. Parvaneh is the first Pan-Iranist martyred woman.

The official and unofficial centers of power, whom I don't want to identify by name at this stage, prepared the ground for pressure groups to resort to such an act, he said. The Pan-Iranist Movement supports all the Kurds because they have an Iranian origin, he said. The killing is an alarm to all Iran-lovers, he said, adding, I have also received threat calls.

Asked if there was any connection between the assassination of Forouhar and his plan to organize rallies in support of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of PKK, he said, supporting Ocalan is a right step, I do not rule out the connection. The Kurds who constitute a population of 12 million in Turkey are labeled as barbaric Turks, which is totally inhuman.

We also respect Ocalan because we defend his rights as a human being, he added. Asked about the probable role of the terrorist Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO), he said, The MKO has become an international terrorist organization, which is at the service of certain policies. I mean the leadership of the MKO, otherwise the members are not guilty, they have been deceived.

The role of the MKO in such killings could be possible. Pezeshkpour said that he himself, time and again, has received death threats from unknown individuals. The Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaie said Monday that, without doubt, Zionist-affiliated pressure groups are behind the murder of (former Labor Minister) Daryush Forouhar. Rezaie, participating in a question-and-answer session with students at Zanjan University, said, The Zionists find a number of persons who cannot do anything and then liquidate them in a bid to create problems in our political community.

Our friends can most probably reach the same conclusion if they study the case, Rezaie added.