Iran's police chief has warned reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi that officers will "decisively confront" any protest over June 12's presidential election, Iranian newspapers reported on Sunday. According to Reuters, a letter to Mousavi from police chief Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam was carried by newspapers after unrest across Tehran on Saturday.
"I announce that if the current situation continues the police, in line with preserving the society's and people's order and security, will decisively confront illegal activities," Ahmadi Moghaddam was quoted as saying, according to the Etemad-e Melli daily. "After the announcement of the election results your supporters, in an illegal act, poured into the streets and by disrupting public order and security disrupted society's atmosphere," the letter went on to say.
Ahmadi Moghaddam told Mousavi that "bandits are acting in the shadow of the illegal atmosphere created by you." According to him, 400 police officers had been injured in post-election unrest.
Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities have detained members of an exiled opposition group it blamed of being behind "terrorist activities" including setting buses on fire and destroying public property, state television said on Sunday. The arrests of members of the Mujahideen Khalq Organisation (MKO) were announced after unrest across Tehran on Saturday.
