TEHRAN Minister of Interior, Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, here Sunday described the Tehran University incidents as one of the most bitter social, political and cultural events of the recent times and said all those supporting the system refer to the incidents in the most regretful terms. Referring to the Thursday clashes in Tehran University dormitories, he told reporters that the students had staged a sit-in rally in protest to the closure of the Salam daily and approval of amendments to the Press Law by the Majlis when unfortunately faced with irrational and self-motivated reaction of the Law Enforcement Forces and the pressure groups who embarked on beating the students without having any official orders to do so.

At the early hours of Friday morning, I myself, together with two other members of the cabinet and a number of Majlis representatives went to the site of the incident to closely inspect the event. To be honest, I could not believe what I saw.'' Commenting on the measures adopted by his ministry and other security officials in this regard, Lari said that the scale of the incident was such that made the Interior Ministry's Security Council, Tehran Province's Security Council as well as the Supreme National Security Council to intervene by setting up committees to follow up the event.

One of the preliminary measures was to distance the Law Enforcement and Security Forces from the university's dormitory complex and then to confront the willful and disobedient elements who are known as pressure groups in the society. He said seven members of pressure groups had been arrested and more were being looked for. On the death toll of the incident, the minister said, Unfortunately rumors begin to spread too fast in such events which suggest false figures.

The fact is that a number of students as well as Law Enforcement members were injured in the incident while an officer who was a guest of his friends in the dormitory at the night of the incident was martyred by a gunshot. There have been no other losses of life.'' Lari further stated that the important thing about the incident was the gun which injured three people and killed one, adding that a group of security and information forces, due to to sensitivity of the case, were probing into the case to identify and punish the gun owner.

In response to a question by IRIB reporter whether the student demonstration had the ministry's permission, Lari said, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran advocates freedom of political and legal groups and has tried to deal legally with requests submitted to it in this regard. "The students had no license for their sit-in, but the Interior Ministry has been trying to let the students voice their opinions and it is ready to carry out legal measures to help materialize their demands as well.

"Therefore, the students should take this fact into consideration and use legal means to express their opinion and thus help their own government to move in the direction of rule of law. Some of the acts during the incident were not committed by the protesting Muslim students but what we need to do is to push the whole affair into a direction which would prevent any misinterpretations.''