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Mullahs resort to brutal crackdown to thwart spread of Tehran demonstration |
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Wednesday, 13 July 2005 |
 Tehran demonstration – statement no. 2
Fearing the spread of yesterday’s antigovernment demonstration in
Tehran, the clerical regime deployed thousands of suppressive forces,
including the State Security Forces (SSF), plainclothes officers and
Intelligence Ministry agents, to crack down brutally on the protesters,
particularly women and youths.
The protest, which began at 5:00 pm, quickly swelled to several
thousand protesters as many people and young men join it. The protest
was in support of Mojahedin and other dissident political prisoners. A
large number of these prisoners have been on a hunger strike for
several weeks.
At outset of the protest, more than 1,500 suppressive forces, equipped
with batons and tear gas spray and canisters, charged the crowd and
began beating and assaulting them violently.
Despite the harsh crackdown, the protesters continued chanting “Death
to dictatorship,” “Freedom, freedom,” “Free all political prisoners,”
“Guns, tanks, Bassijis are no longer effective,” “We don’t want the
rule of force, mercenary police,” and clashed with the security forces
and beat up a number of them. In some areas, including Farvardin
Street, young people set tires ablaze and set up barricades to stop the
agents’ attacks.
Around 7:00 pm, the clerical regime dispatched hundreds of special
anti-riot units that rode on motorcycles to Enghelab Square and Street,
the main area of the clashes, which also continued in Kargar, 16th of
Azar, Brown, Farvardin and Fakhr-e Razi streets until 8:30 pm. Hundred
of people were injured or beaten up and hundreds more were detained and
taken to unknown locations.
An SSF commander, Col. Mahmoud Jafar-Nassab, who was quite irate and
terrified that some protesters had “raised the portraits of Rajavi,”
was telling his subordinates to quickly tear away the posters. An SSF
sergeant who refused to attack young girls and elderly women was
chastised and detained on the scene by his commander.
In a message to Mojahed and other dissident prisoners, as well the
young people in Tehran, Iranian Resistance’s President-elect Maryam
Rajavi hailed them for breaking the atmosphere and intimidation and
countering the repressive measures put in place by the mullahs. “No
power can impede the Iranian people’s resistance for democracy and
popular sovereignty and halt the desire among young Iranians for a new
society and democratic change,” she said.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 13, 2005
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