In Iran the tension between the Gonabadi Dervishes sect and the security forces turned into conflict.

According to the Iranian Police Corps Spokesman Sait Muntezirulmehdi, five security officers were killed, 30 security officers were injured and at least 300 sectarians were detained. Conflicts accured in Tehran at 4:30 a.m. Police spokesman said some activists were wounded, but he did not say how many.

According to Iranian official agency IRNA, Said Montazer al-Mahdi, a spokesman for the Iranian Police Service (NACA), one of the protesters, who was driving the bus, run over and killed 3 policemen. Montazer al-Mahdi explained that a Besij protestor killed one policeman by running over him in car, and another Besic protestor stabbed a police officer to death. At least 30 security force personnel were wounded. The Iranian police have announced that more than 300 protesters have been detained.

According to the analysis of the American AP, the pressure on the Sufi Gonabadi sect increased between 2005 and 2013 especially during the period of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2007, the Sufis clashed with security forces after authorities in Boroujerd, central Iran, shut down a Sufi Dervish. The Sufi backed Mahdi Kerrubi, in controversial elections in 2009, when Ahmadinejad competed for the presidency. Kerrubi has been kept under house arrest since 2011.

Nimetullah Gunabadi, a branch of Sufi Islam based on the teachings of the Sufi shayh Shah Nimetullah Veli who lived in the 14th century. The name Gunbadi comes from a place in the Horasan region. This is where Sultan Alishah, the founder of the group, lived in the 19th century. The current leader of the Shiite Islamic followers is Nurali Tabande.

Tabande, the 90-year-old Sufi leader has a Ph.D from the University of Paris. Tabande, who served a short period for ministries of culture and justice after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, had close ties with the two different groups which later opposed the conservative government.