Tehran , Iran ( CNN ) -- Reports of more demonstrations filtered out of Iran on Wednesday , including some that mentioned attacks on people mourning the death of a prominent cleric who was critical of the government . The reports come two days after a witness said that tens of thousands of people chanted anti-government slogans before the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri , a key figure in the 1979 Iranian revolution who went on to become one of the government 's most vocal critics . On Wednesday , the semi-official Fars news agency reported on pro-government demonstrations in the neighboring cities of Isfahan and Najafabad , roughly 200 miles south of Tehran . That account did not mention clashes , but another did . A news site maintained by reformists in the Iranian parliament said that people in plain clothes used tear gas and pepper spray to attack people who had gathered in a mosque in Isfahan to mourn Montazeri 's death ; it said 50 people were arrested . Like other accounts , the report on the reformists ' news site could not independently be verified . Montazeri died Sunday at age 87 . A key figure in Iran 's Islamic Revolution 30 years ago , Montazeri became the most prominent cleric to publicly criticize the presidential elections last June that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency . Writing on his Web site after the disputed June presidential elections , Montazeri described the street protests that followed the polling as a challenge to the `` very legitimacy of the Islamic Republic . '' His death is `` a terrible blow for the ( reformist ) green movement and everybody who has been active these past few months , '' said Mehrdad Khonsari , a senior research consultant at the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London . `` He was a very senior grand ayatollah with very good revolutionary credentials , and a very vocal critic of the ruling establishment , '' Khonsari said . `` He was a major thorn in the back of ( Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali ) Khamenei . He was a bastion for all the people opposing the excesses of the system , '' even within the ruling establishment , he said . In the past six months , Montazeri had become the voice of the reformist movement on key foreign policy issues , Khonsari said . The cleric was able to comment more freely than reformist presidential candidates , he said . Montazeri , for example , took a public stand against nuclear weapons in October , issuing a fatwa , or religious edict , declaring them to be `` un-Islamic '' and instructing Muslims to take the lead in banning them , said Nazenin Ansari , diplomatic editor of the weekly newspaper Kayhan in London . Iran 's nuclear program has been the subject of intense international concern , with the United Nations considering expanding sanctions against the Islamic state despite its insistence it does not intend to build a bomb . Montazeri had a very large public following , especially since the June elections and all his statements in favor of human rights , '' Ansari said . He was once a confidant of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , who led Iran for a decade after the revolution . He studied under Khomeini and then acted as his representative in Iran after Khomeini was exiled by the shah for criticizing the monarchy , Ansari said . Montazeri , too , was jailed and exiled . After the revolution , he was the heir apparent to Khomeini , and played a key role in writing Iran 's constitution as the first chair of the powerful Guardians Council . He was also the leader of Friday prayers in Tehran , one of the most public and influential pulpits in the country . But he was supplanted by the current supreme leader , Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , and was placed under several years of house arrest in 1997 . `` His problems with Khomeini started in the summer of 1988 when they started executing ... thousands of leftist prisoners , '' Ansari said . `` He never was in agreement with that , and then he started to fade '' from power . `` Once Khamenei became leader , Montazeri objected , '' she said . Montazeri said Khamenei `` was elevated above his ( religious ) qualifications , '' pointing out that he had not earned the title of ayatollah . `` It was then he was arrested . '' Recently , Montazeri has objected to the current regime 's characterization of his one-time mentor Khomeini as a saint , she added . And following the disputed elections in June , `` he issued a ground-breaking fatwa articulating the policies of the green movement to the world . Montazeri had been equally critical of the parliamentary electoral process in 2004 , arguing in favor of reformist candidates .
Reformist news site claims tear gas , pepper spray used against mourners . Score: 6 Reports of anti-government protests at funeral of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri . Montazeri publicly criticized last June 's presidential elections .