Iranian Regime Forces Arrest 40 In Sunni City Of Zahedan
Iranian regime forces have arrested at least 40 citizens in a joint operation in the flashpoint city of Zahedan in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Iranian regime forces have arrested at least 40 citizens in a joint operation in the flashpoint city of Zahedan in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Halvash website that covers Baluchestan events said the operation was jointly carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guard, and the provincial police forces while the detainees have been transferred to an unknown place.
IRNA news agency quoted an “informed source” saying the detainees were “criminals and armed robbers of Zahedan."
However, activists say almost 30 were arrested in a sports field in Karimabad region of Zahedan.
Within the past thirteen weeks, Zahedan, a Sunni Baluch city, has been the scene of weekly protests against the regime on Fridays.
The Bloody Friday in Zahedan took place September 30, when security forces killed at least 93 people, and injured hundreds more as civilians protested.
The US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported Monday that at least 516 people, including 70 children have been killed by the regime forces during the nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.
While the Islamic Republic has not provided accurate figures of those detained in the protests, the watchdog went on to say that at least 19,204 protesters have been arrested including 687 students.
HRANA added that 161 cities and more than 144 universities across Iran have also been the scenes of anti-government protests.
Dozens of groups urged people in Iran and abroad to hold mourning ceremonies as well as street rallies and strikes on January 8 to also honor civilians killed by the Revolutionary Guards, and condemn the human rights violations by the regime. Following the downing of Flight PS 752, the Islamic Republic tried to deny the incident for a few days before it was forced to admit that an air defense unit had fired two missiles at the airliner over Tehran.
In a statement, titled “This is no time for grief but for wrath,” at least a dozen rights groups said that three years ago following the incident, protests took place against the regime but now condemnations should be louder and heard everywhere.
"It's been more than three months that a huge revolution has begun to liberate women and all people suffering under oppression and exploitation in the shackles of the criminal rule - a revolution whose motto is "women, life, freedom" and one of its main goals is the downfall of the Islamic Republic. In the three months since the beginning of our revolution, the Islamic Republic has committed more crimes against the revolutionaries, teenagers, young people and protesters,” read the statement.
The Association of Progressive Students, Alliance of Doctors, the Union of Doctors and Medical Staff, the Freedom-loving students of Noshirvani University of Babol, the National Committee of Kordestan Province Students, the Association of Revolutionary Students of Tehran, the Alliance of Esfahan University of Technology, and many other are among the signatories of the call for action.
"Now we all have come to believe that we can overthrow the Islamic Republic and bring its big and small officials to justice,” they added.
On Sunday, Hamed Esmaeilion, the Canada-based activist whose daughter and wife were killed in the incident and serves as the spokesman for the families of Iranian victims of Ukrainian flight PS752, also called for a symbolic action on January 7. Noting that there is a graveyard that bears the bodies of the Islamic regime’s victims, he said, “we will lay flowers on the graves of all the victims of the Islamic Republic in the world.”
Last week, Britain, Canada, Sweden, and Ukraine formally launched a process to hold the Islamic Republic accountable for shooting down the Ukrainian airliner over Tehran, urging the Islamic Republic to agree to arbitration as Tehran has stonewalled over an independent investigation and proper compensation.
The airliner was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the IRGC as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. Hours earlier, the IRGC had fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation for the killing of the IRGC Quds Force Commander Ghasem Soleimani who was targeted by a US drone strike just five days earlier. All 176 passengers and crew, including 63 Canadians and 10 from Sweden, as well as 82 Iranian citizens on the plane died in the disaster.
This year, the anniversary for the victims is taking place as the current wave of antigovernment protests ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini is raging on for over 100 days across the country. The protest rallies show no sign of abating as the regime has killed over 500 people and Iranians.
