Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 16, 2020—Accompanied by a large number of security forces, authorities from Khorramabad in western Iran stormed into the poor district of Falakedin on Tuesday, April 14, and began demolishing houses built by deprived locals. The oppressive security forces attacked the residents unwilling to leave their houses and injured several of the elderly locals.
The demolished buildings belonged mostly to people who had lost their homes during last year’s floods. They had built these makeshift houses through their own means despite living in utter poverty and being deprived of any income. The authorities’ inhumane measures have taken place at a time when the entire country is engulfed with the coronavirus crisis and people desperately need the safety of their homes.
Hundreds of repressive forces, including the anti-riot units and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) paramilitary Basij forces, with helicopters providing air support, took part in this criminal raid, accompanied by municipal agents using heavy machinery, bulldozers and anti-riot trucks armed with water-canons
Local youths resisted the attack targeting their houses by the repressive forces, and the regime’s units responded by launching attacks and firing bird shots. The youths threw stones at the police and Basij forces, breaking their vehicles’ windshields.
In an interview with the official IRNA news agency, Khorramabad mayor Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam expressed his concerns over public outrage following these attacks. “Given the coronavirus outbreak, and the focus of the offices and public services in attempting to resolve this crisis, some sought to take advantage of these circumstances and had built (houses) without obtaining necessary permits,” he claimed. “…the municipality has only tried to impose the regulations and has not taken any action beyond the legal requirements.”
Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), while expressing her empathy to the people of Falakedin, called on Khorramabad’s courageous locals to rush to the aid of the people in Falakedin. Destroying the homes of deprived people in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is another sign of the mullahs’ cruelty, Madam Rajavi continued, adding this regime’s sole focus is on maintaining their theocracy. Instead of correctly imposing quarantine measures and providing for the poor and needy, the mullahs are waging a campaign against them through a variety of measures including destroying their homes built through the most basic means and through much hardship.
In an inhumane and criminal measure amid the #Coronavirus outbreak, agents of the clerical regime destroyed homes of the impoverished people dwelling in Khorramabad’s Falakeddin district. Hail to the youth of Khorramabad who stood up to the repressive agents #Iran
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 15, 2020
In other news of protests across Iran, workers in the town of Omidiyeh in southwest Iran rallied on Wednesday, April 15, protesting a local state company’s practice of hiring non-local workers. The protesting workers clashed with state security forces intending to disperse their gathering.
More footage of Omidiyeh locals clashing with the regime’s state security forces.
In Qazvin, northwest Iran, toll station employees who have been recently laid off rallied outside the regime’s Ministry of Road and Construction building in the Iranian capital of Tehran demanding their return o work. They had staged a similar protest gathering on Tuesday and clashed with state security forces. Several protesting employees were injured as a result.
Protest rally by toll station employees in Qazvin, northwest Iran
Bakery owners and employees in the cities of Rasht, Yazd and Zanjan held rallies on Wednesday, April 15, protesting rising wheat prices in comparison to state-controlled bread prices, their poor living conditions and demands going unanswered for long periods of time. These protesters were making it clear they are no longer able to continue their line of work under such conditions.
On Tuesday, April 14, a number of bakery owners and employees in the city of Yasuj, southern Iran, rallied outside the regime’s governorate building. They were holding signs reading, “We are no longer to bake bread considering the rise in recent expenses, including water, electricity, insurance, store mortgage bills, etc.”
Protest rally by bakery owners and employees in Iran
