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Iran reformers rally behind stricken leader

TEHRAN: Iran's broad reformist movement vowed on Monday to press on with its campaign for change, undeterred by an assassin's bullet that left one of its leading lights fighting for his life in a Tehran hospital.

In an outpouring of support for Saeed Hajjarian, one of the architects of the movement and a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami, politicians, clerics and newspaper editors said the shooting represented the cost of reforming the Islamic system.

"The calamity of the assassination attempt on our intellectual brother Hajjarian was one of the prices that the reformist current must pay," newspapers quoted Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the president's chief of staff, as saying.

"Firing on reform," read a headline in the moderate daily Ham-Mihan. "Hajjarian lives forever, the reforms will not be stopped," said Hamshahri.

Hajjarian was shot in the face at close range on Sunday by unknown assailants. He remained unconscious in intensive care, although doctors reported some improved neurological response.

Doctors said he was likely to be unconscious for days. It was too early to tell the full extent of any brain damage, mostly from lack of oxygen in the minutes after the attack.

APPEALS FOR CALM

The shooting of Hajjarian, prime strategist behind the reformists' strong showing in last month's parliamentary elections, stunned the Islamic Republic and threatened to push the simmering factional struggle toward open conflict.

Cabinet ministers, clerics and other allies flocked to the hospital to express their concern. Many appealed for calm.

In an emergency meeting late on Sunday, the Supreme National Security Council pledged to mobilise all resources in the hunt for the gunmen, who fled on the kind of high-powered motorcycle reserved exclusively for police and security personnel.

The council, meeting without President Khatami who was on a visit to his native province, also promised to keep the public informed of all developments surrounding the attempt on Hajjarian, a former senior intelligence official.

"It was agreed that swift and vast diverse measures would be taken both in the security and police fields so that the perpetrators of this plot would be identified and eliminated," the council said in a statement.

From his house arrest in the holy city Qom, Iran's top dissident demanded an immediate end to political violence, which the reformers say has the discreet backing of the conservative establishment.

"If the government cannot stop such terrorist acts and barbaric attacks by the 'pressure groups', it is only contributing to its own decline and demise," Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said in a statement.

"It is incumbent on all authorities to take action quickly against the 'pressure groups' and such unlawful and un-Islamic acts," he said.

MYSTERY MOTORCYLE

Another leading reformist theologian singled out the conservatives, big losers in the recent elections, for blame.

"The terrorist attack on Hajjarian is a declaration of war on the nation. Why don't you try to accomodate the people, why don't you accept their vote?" said Yusef Sanei.

Mindful of mounting public distrust for security forces apparently unable to halt political violence, the authorities were scrambling to apprehend the culprits.

Police detectives said witnesses had helped them create a composite portrait of the gunman and his accomplice who drove the getaway 1000-cc motorcycle.

Iranian law bars such powerful bikes, once the favourite vehicle in political killings, for general use. -Reuters