On January 7, 1978, an article (“Iran and the Red and Black Colonialism”) appeared in the national daily Ettela’at newspaper. Written under a pseudonym by a government agent, it denounced Imam Khomeini as a “British agent” and a “mad Indian poet” conspiring to sell out Iran to neo-colonialists and communists.

Upon the publishing of the article, religious seminary students in the city of Qom, angered over the insult to Imam Khomeini, clashed with police. According to the government, two were killed in the clash; according to the opposition, seventy were killed and over five hundred were injured.