NCRI – Seven Gonabadi Dervishes were arrested by state security forces at the turn of the New Year as they gathered outside a prison where their loved ones are being held.
Guards released three, but continued to hold the other four as the regime’s agents also seized their cars parked outside the Adel Abad prison, near the south-eastern city of Shiraz.
Security forces also sealed off roads to the prison to allow no other visitors to reach the area.
Gonabadi dervishes have faced mounting harassment in recent years, with several prominent clerics in Iran issued fatwas against Sufis.
Cleric Lankarani said in 2006 that Sufis were ‘misleading Iranian youth’ and that all contact with them was forbidden.
Hundreds were arrested in Qom in February 2006 following protests over the destruction of their place of worship, known as a hosseinieh.
The Iranian New Year, or Nowruz, is celebrated on the day of the spring equinox, which this year fell on March 20.
