Tehran (AsiaNews) – Clashes took place yesterday evening in Tehran between university students, police and religious militias. This could well be a sign that after a long silence, the voice of university students is being heard once again. In its time, this voice was one of the factors contributing to the temporary success of Khatami's reformers.

Student sources said around 2,000 youth gathered outside the residence of the University of Tehran to protest against what they described as "new restrictions imposed by the university" and also against the arrest, on the charge of spying, of Ramin Jahanbegloo, philosopher and political analyst, graduated from the Sorbonne and Harvard, and a specialist on ties between Iran and the West.

Witnesses said the youth were shouting slogans against the despotism of the new leadership of the President, Ahmadinejad. The bassidji, religious militias, came out to stop them, and the police followed suit.

The pro-reformist Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, said the demonstrators "wanted to protest against the ousting of nine law professors and to back students of the university of Amir-Kabi", who have been protesting for a week already. The youth also shouted: "We do not want the Islam of the Taleban".

The same source added that the deputy governor of the capital, Abdullah Roshan, said 40 policemen and four students were injured and there were six arrests.

The official reconstruction of events by the news agency IRNA, said "a few people were injured" and "a number of parked vehicles were damaged after stones were thrown". The agency quoted the police chief, General Morteza Talaie, "present at the scene", as saying the unrest was created by "a small group of 20 to 30 people, several of whom were probably not students". He added: "We cannot say that the unrest was caused by students and that all involved were students. No student has so far been arrested by the police", who showed "maximum restraint and patience in order to prevent more trouble". According to the version of the police chief, "20 or 30" demonstrators injured 40 policemen and some of the wounded were admitted into hospital.

IRNA said the protest "ended after a few hours".

In 1999, the University of Tehran was the scene of violent incidents that left one person dead and hundreds wounded.