TEHRAN -- The bodies of five unknown soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq War have been buried on the campus of Tehran University, Radio Farda reported. The burial took place during the Ashura religious holiday, when classes are not held.

The ceremony was led by members of the Basij, the official Islamic militia supervised by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Student activists criticized the act at Tehran University by distributing a symbolic protest letter addressed to the unknown soldier.

The first such martyrs' burial took place in March 2007 at Tehran's prestigious Sharif Technical University and sparked large student protests.

Critics say President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and the supreme leader take ideological advantage of such burials to promote the interests of ultraconservatives at the expense of those who were killed in the 1980-88 war.

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