Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, May 10, 2019 – Reports on Thursday from numerous cities throughout Iran indicated a number of protest rallies and crackdown measures by the regime’s state security guards aiming to prevent any possible outbreak of anti-regime gatherings.
In the city of Mashhad, northeast Iran, a large number of clients of the Padideh Credit Firm rallied outside the regime’s provincial governor's office demanding their stolen savings returned. State security guards, however, rushed to the scene and forced the crowd to disperse.
The Padideh Credit Firm is a subsidiary of the Caspian Credit Institute, known to be linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). The U.S. State Department recently designated the IRGC as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO).
Also in Mashhad, a number of nurses of the Mashhad Medical Sciences University working on contract basis held a rally outside the university’s administrative building demanding their delayed paychecks. These nurses were participating in this rally on behalf of many other of their colleagues.
Near the city of Urmia, northwest Iran, store owners of the Zeeveh Mergur Market went on strike on Thursday, protesting the raid carried out by state security forces in coordination with the officials of a local union. This rally was held outside the mayor’s office of a town by the name of Silvana near Urmia.
The union officials intended to force the storeowners to put up signs promoting the union. The storeowners refused, rendering clashes between union officials and the protesting storeowners. As a result, the protesting storeowners held a rally outside the local police station.
State institutions are pressuring 400 store owners in this area to close down and hand over their stores.
It has been over 20 years since the residents of this town are working in this market. However, in recent months, a company by the name of “The Trade Union Guild,” consisting of the regime’s retired armed forces members and other government organizations, along with the mayors of Silvana and local villages, are pressuring the store owners into this unjust arrangement.
