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    Khatami administration target of recent killings, says official

    TEHRAN (Dec. 13) XINHUA - The government of President Mohammad Khatami was the target of recent political killings in Iran, Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh said on Saturday.

    "Whatever their ill-omened motive and intention may be, the short-term target (of the perpetrators) is Mr. Khatami's administration and in the long run they aim at the entire system of the Islamic Republic", Tajzadeh said.

    In a meeting with a group of Tehran University students, the deputy minister said that some clues of the recent killings of dissidents and pro-freedom writers were found and a number of people have been arrested in connection with the killings.

    A special committee has been set up at the National Security Council to investigate the recent political killings in the country, Tajzadeh said.

    The National Security Council convened Saturday night under the presidency of President Khatami to review the recent political killings in the country, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Sunday.

    During the past one month, a veteran opposition leader Darius Forouhar and his wife were stabbed to death at home in Tehran and several dissident writers were found killed near the capital.

    Another famous writer Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh was reported missing on Wednesday, the day when the body of dissident poet Mohammad Mokhtari was found after he had disappeared in Tehran last week.

    Both the two were among the six prominent writers and secular intellectuals questioned in October by an Islamic revolutionary court for their activities.

    Meanwhile, the Persian-language daily Iran reported on Sunday that Pouyandeh's body has been found in the Tehran suburb.The writer was choked and the killers did not take any of his belongings away but his identity card.

    Tajzadeh said that no doubt some people are conspiring to make the situation bitter for the people at a time that the system is moving toward political development.

    Following the recent killings, a group of 50 writers published an open letter to President Khatami, urging his administration to immediately identify and bring the murderers to justice, the English-language Iran Daily reported on Sunday.

    "We, authors, wish to call on the chief executive who is in charge of ensuring the safety of citizens, to put an end to this offending situation by any means," the letter said, calling for legal permission to establish the Iran Authors Association which has been banned months ago.

    The Islamic Association of University Students and the Educated recently also issued a statement, warning President Khatami that the opponents have started to resort to terrorist assassinations against his supporters.

    The recent killings and missing of writers indicated that the enemies of freedom have taken arms and martyred one by one supporters of the civil society, freedom and people's rule, it said.

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