Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (محمد باقر قالیباف; born September 1961 in Mashhad) is an Iranian General and the former head of Police Forces of Iran.
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Early life
He was born in September of 1961 in Mashhad and at age 22 he was the Commander of Nasr forces during Iran-Iraq war. In 1996 he got his M.A. in Political Geography and in 2001, he got his Ph.D. in the same field from Tarbiat Modarres University.
Police career
He has been selected by Ali Khamenei to succeed Gen. Hedayat Lotfian in the summer of 1999 after the Iranian student protests of July, 1999.
After becaming the Head of the Police, Ghalibaf made some reforms in the forces and started up a new plan for Iranian police forces including Police 110 for making the police more reachable to the general public. He was also successful in handling 2003 Iranian student protests with his deputy Morteza Talaei, the head of the Tehran's Police and helped end the protests without any loss of life or serious damage.
He is also the special representative of President Mohammad Khatami in the Anti-Traffic Committee.
Presidential compaign
Ghalibaf is a presidential candidate for the Iranian presidential election of 2005, and is being considered to be supported by the some factions of the conservatives alliance because of his popularity with both wings.
On April 5 he resigned from his position in the Police due to his presidential activities and officially announced that he will run in Iranian presidential election, 2005. While some sources claim that Ghalibaf has compared himself with Reza Pahlavi on May 9, 2005 ("The country needs a Reza Khan, and I am the Hezbollahi Reza Khan") [1], Ghalibaf has denied the quote.