Pro-Government Forces Attack Student Protesters at Tehran’s Azad U.

Student protesters chanting anti-government slogans and calling for the release of jailed leaders of the student-protest movement were attacked on Saturday by members of the Basij paramilitary force at the main campus of Azad University, in Tehran, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Azad, a large quasi-private institution, enrolls more than half of Iran’s university students in campuses throughout the country. The Iranian authorities are reported to be cracking down on student-protest activities in the run-up to the anniversary of last year’s disputed presidential election and the widespread unrest that followed. Last week, according to RFE/RL, two leaders of Iran’s largest student-protest group were sentenced to prison terms on charges including “insulting Iran’s leaders and acting against national security.”