TEHRAN, Nov. 9, 1978 (UPI) - Sajid Rizvi, 30, United Press International bureau manager in Tehran, was arrested early Thursday and ordered deported to London on the first available plane. No reasons were given immediately.
Rizvi, a Pakistani national, was picked up at 12:50 a.m. by two men in civilian clothes and six soldiers armed with submachine guns and taken to the Ministry of Information.
His wife, Shirley, said he was permitted a two-minute telephone call from the ministry in which he said the ministry was deporting him and that someone from the house should bring his passport at 5:30 a.m., a half-hour after the end of curfew.
Mrs. Rizvi said she and their son Asad, 2, were not being deported and planned to stay in Tehran at least for the present.
On Wednesday, police arrested the shah's onetime closest aide and prime minister for 13 years and ordered special tribunals set up to try former top officials on corruption charges. Rioters fire-bombed three American houses as arson attacks spread to include foreigners.
The firebomb attacks caused no injuries but they spread alarm through the 41,000-member American community in the capital. Many Americans said they would flee Iran until the rioting is halted.
A brief martial law communiqu
