TEHRAN, Iran — Former President Mohammad Khatami was expected to fly on a domestic flight on Saturday night that was found to have a homemade bomb aboard, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday.
The daily newspaper Sarmayeh said Khatami had been scheduled to fly on the Kish Air flight to Tehran from the southwestern city of Ahwaz on Saturday evening, but that he had taken another flight instead. It was unclear why he had changed his plans.
Khatami has been traveling and campaigning in support of Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate politician and the most serious challenger to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ahead of June 12 elections.
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported Sunday that a homemade bomb was found in a lavatory on the Kish Air flight, which had 131 passengers aboard. It said about 15 minutes into the flight the plane turned back to the Ahwaz airport, where authorities defused the device. The agency gave no further details.
Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst and an ally of Khatami, confirmed that Khatami had been scheduled to be on the plane but cautioned that there may not have been a bomb on board, and if there were, it may have been meant as a warning.
"Maybe there was no bomb," he said. "Maybe they just wanted to threaten him. We are not certain yet that there was really a bomb on the plane."
The episode occurred as unofficial polls suggested that Moussavi was pulling ahead of Ahmadinejad before next week's presidential election.
There have been several episodes of violence in Iran recently. The official Press TV reported Monday on its Web site that five people were killed in the southeastern city of Zahedan in an arson attack on a bank linked to the paramilitary Basij force, which is often involved in crackdowns on dissidents. The five men were employees of the Mehr Financial & Credit institution, Press TV said.
Iran is a predominantly Shiite country, but there is a large community of Sunni Muslims in the south, including in Zahedan, where Sunni militants say they are fighting for greater autonomy from Iran's Shiite leadership.