TEHRAN The spokesman for the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan described the destruction of a mosque in Baku as an insulting move against Muslims.

The party spokesman, Qorban Jebraeil, told a Baku-based daily, the destruction of the mosque is a blasphemy on divine decrees and that Azeri government bodies have committed an irreparable mistake by ordering the offensive act.

While asserting that divine punishment awaits those who committed the heinous act, the spokesman said these kinds of cruel acts have reached a point that Muslim are not able to halt the destruction of mosques in this country.

Exploiting unwarranted pretexts, Azeri government forces destroyed a mosque in one of the districts near the capital Baku three days ago.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Haider Aliyev, in a message addressed to Jews in the country, called April 18 as a mourning day for the Jewish people, and said about six million Jews were massacred mercilessly during World War II, the Azeri state TV reported.

Aliyev said the Jewish people resisted the holocaust and rose against fascism in one of the prisoners' camps in Poland in April 1943, thereby adding a sample of heroism in human history.

In his message, the president compared the Jewish massacre with that of the Karabakh conflict and described both events as equal in terms of cruelty.

In the meantime, Azerbaijan's police intervened using riot shields and night sticks to break up an attempted rally by protestors demonstrating in central Baku in support of political prisoners Saturday.

Several hundred people turned out amid a heavy police presence in response to a call by the Azerbaijan Democratic Party, but helmeted police intervened every time they attempted to form into groups.

Azerbaijani authorities had banned the rally from being held at the chosen location. They also denied the existence of political prisoners.

The protestors, numbered by the ITAR-TASS news agency at 300, chanted slogans and attempted to form a march but were prevented from doing so by the police intervention.

Several of the protestors were beaten, and police arrested at least 20 people, including one of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party leaders, Nureddin Mammedov.