Forty days later, on 29 March, demonstrations were organized in at least 55 cities, including capital. In an increasingly predictable pattern, deadly riots broke out in major cities,and again 40 days later, on 10 May. It led to an incident in which army commandos opened fire on Ayatollah Shariatmadari’s house, killing one of his students. Shariatmadari immediately made a public announcement declaring his support for a “constitutional government,” and a return to the policies of the 1906 Constitution.
According to the Shi’ite customs, memorial services (chehelom) are held 40 days after a person’s death. Encouraged by Khomeini (who declared that the blood of martyrs must water the “tree of Islam”). Radicals pressured the mosques and moderate clergy to commemorate the deaths of the students, and used the occasion to generate protests. The informal network of mosques and bazaars, which for years had been used to carry out religious events, increasingly became consolidated as a coordinated protest organization.
