TEHRAN, Dec 8: Baton-wielding security forces arrested at least 60 people in the Iranian capital on Saturday, a city official said, as thousands gathered in and around Tehran University to call for political reform.

The demonstration, which coincided with National Students’ Day, was the most significant sign in recent weeks that ordinary Iranians were willing to join students in the largest pro-reform protests in the Islamic Republic for over three years.

“Around 60 to 70 people have been arrested, most of whom are being questioned,” Ali Taala, general director of security and political affairs at the governor’s office in Tehran, told the students’ news agency ISNA.

He said the street demonstration, unlike a rally held by students within the university campus, had not been authorised and was therefore illegal. Most of those arrested were not students, he said.

The pro-reform protests, which until now had been confined largely to universities, reflect simmering tension in the country of 65 million people where President Mohammad Khatami’s reformist government is at loggerheads with powerful hardliners opposed to his agenda of greater democracy and social freedom.

While Khatami has won two landslide elections and enjoys the backing of parliament, hardliners control key state bodies such as the judiciary, armed forces and a constitutional watchdog that vets legislation and election candidates.

Witnesses said at least 2,000 people began congregating in the streets around the university on Saturday afternoon watched by several hundred riot and regular police.

MIXED CROWD: The mixed gathering of young and old, men and women occasionally chanted slogans such as “Political prisoners must be freed!”