Starting a few weeks earlier, government hardliners had taken many provocative actions against Dervishes, including distribution of pamphlets, writing insulting slogans on walls, attacks on Dervishes’ business while shouting “down with American Sufi,” and searching Dervishes’ houses without warrants. During the clashes, Vahid Banani, a young Gonabadi Dervish, was shot and killed. At the same time, at least three other Gonabadi Dervishes were also seriously wounded by shots fired by plainclothes security forces. Despite evidence indicating that a police officer had shot Banani directly, Iranian authorities failed to prosecute him and tried to depict the incident as involuntary manslaughter and just pay diya or blood money.