of the situation drove their enemies to increase their pressure on him and the other Risale-i Nur Students as part of a wider plan to halt their activities. This culminated in the third and worst large-scale imprisonment of Bediuzzaman and his students.

Sometime towards the end of 1947, the President, İsmet İnönü, visited Afyon and gave a speech, following which the pressure and harassment on Bediuzzaman were increased. [^291] He was reported to have said during his visit that "it is reckoned a disturbance connected with religion will break out in this province." Bediuzzaman wrote in a letter that this pointed to the large scale of the conspiracy against them, and that — as previously — the aim of the harassment inflicted on him was "to provoke an incident and disturbance. [^292]

[^291]:Mustafa Bilal, in Son Şahitler, iv, 20,

[^292]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, i, 156.

Following this, the police moved against Risale-i Nur Students in the provinces of Isparta, Kastamonu, Konya, and many other places. Houses were searched, enquiries were made. [^293]

[^293]:Tarihçe, 473-4.

At the same time, Bediuzzaman was subjected to a series of entirely unlawful raids, assaults, and harassment. It is clear by this "making numerous mountains out of one molehill" that it was leading up to further arrests. On the orders of the Interior Minister, the governor of Afyon and chief of police came to Emirdağ at night with the intention of searching Bediuzzaman's house. When the public prosecutor did not endorse this, they waited till the morning then appointed two men to break the lock on the door and made a forcible entrance. [^294] These two officials, that is, the governor and police chief came five times over a period of ten days. On searching Bediuzzaman's house they found nothing, but took his Qur'an and some sheets written in the Arabic script. Two gendarmes were ordered to take Bediuzzaman to the police station. Having failed to anger him by raiding his house, they now tried again to provoke an incident by attempting to make a spectacle of Bediuzzaman by trying to remove his turban by force and make him wear a hat in public when taking him to give his statement. They again failed. Bediuzzaman wrote:

[^294]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, i, 270.

Endless thanks be to Almighty God for He bestowed on me a state of mind whereby I would have sacrificed my self-respect and dignity a thousand times for the unfortunate people of this country, and repulsed calamities from them; I decided to endure what they did and the insults and abuse they