TEHRAN - Iranian riot police were deployed in the capital Monday as opposition supporters gathered for anti-government protests on Iran’s National Student Day.

Witnesses say hundreds of police armed with batons and tear gas clashed with protesters in the streets of central Tehran Monday. Other police were reported to be blocking streets leading to Tehran University.

National Student Day commemorates the killing of three Iranian students during an anti-American protest in 1953.

Reformist opposition activists are expected to turn the state-authorized event into a protest against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

On Sunday, Iranians said their Internet and cell phone services had slowed or had been disconnected in advance of planned demonstrations by student activists.

Opposition sources suspect that communications are being limited to deprive demonstrators of the ability to mobilize.

The government also has banned foreign journalists from covering news, revoking their work permits in Tehran from December 7 to December 9.

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Sunday accused Iran’s rulers of being intolerant, and of silencing any constructive criticism.

The powerful cleric also called on anti-government protesters to express their views “within the framework of law.”

Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said that students will not be silenced, despite pressure from the clerical establishment.

The reform movement has struggled to maintain momentum after the June presidential election sparked Iran’s largest street protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Iranian security forces arrested thousands of activists, journalists and politicians during the unrest, and are accused of killing dozens of people.

Sources in Iran told VOA (Persian News Network) that authorities on Saturday arrested 15 women in Tehran’s Laleh Park for attending a weekly gathering of mothers whose children were killed in the election unrest.

Source:  VOA News