Thursday, May 9, 2024
HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSNew wave of chemical gas attacks in Iran signal regime concerns over...
NEWSIRAN NEWS

New wave of chemical gas attacks in Iran signal regime concerns over new protests

By Mahmoud Hakamian
Iran - protests - uprising - revolution - teachers - educators - April 8, 2023
According to latest reports protesters in at least 282 cities throughout Iran’s 31 provinces have taken to the streets for 206 days now seeking to overthrow the mullahs’ regime. Over 750 have been killed by regime security forces and at least 30,000 arrested, via sources affiliated to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK.

Latest update – 8:45 pm CET

Iran’s ruling regime has launched a new wave of chemical attacks through its operatives in different cities across the country with the goal of keeping a lid on possible protests against the mullahs’ dictatorship. Innocent children in schools are being targeted as the misogynist regime continues its relentless attacks against the Iranian people knowing any relief in its crackdown measures will allow a new uprising to be born.

As Sunday marks the 206th day of Iran’s nationwide uprising, people throughout the country continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 675 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

MEK Resistance Units portrayed a large image of Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi and opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi in the city of Mashhad in northeast Iran at 10 pm on Saturday night.

MEK Resistance Units launched a variety of measures in memory of 36 MEK members killed by the Iranian regime’s proxies in Iraq on April 8, 2011, in Camp Ashraf of Iraq. MEK Resistance Units members in Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Shiraz, Isfahan, Karaj, Rasht, Turkaman Sahra, Semnan, Lahijan, Gorgan, Shahroud, Kazerun, Bandar Abbas, Ardabil, Ilam, Astara, Zahedan, and Sabzevar gathered to commemorate the MEK martyrs and vow to continue their struggle to establish a free and democratic Iran.

MEK Resistance Units and protesters across Iran launched a series of measures against the mullahs’ regime in recent days. These actions include:

  • Protesters attacked a “Khomeini Relief Committee” site in Hamadan, western Iran. There was an explosion at the site.
  • Protesters torched IRGC paramilitary Basij bases in the cities of Arak and Amol, central and northern Iran, respectively.
  • Protesters torched the office of Khamenei’s representative in the city of Kuhdasht, western Iran.
  • Protesters torched the office of the IRGC paramilitary Basij – Student Branch in Amol, northern Iran.
  • MEK Resistance Units torched large posters of Khamenei, regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, and former IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani in the cities of Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tonekabon.
  • MEK Resistance Units torched large banners associated to the regime’s Intelligence Ministry in the city of Salmanshahr in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran.
  • MEK Resistance Units torched a pro-regime propaganda billboard of the mullahs’ mandatory hijab rules in Amol, northern Iran.
Iran - protests - uprising - revolution - April 2023
Protesters inside Iran are attacking sites associated to the mullahs’ regime, the IRGC, and Basij paramilitary units – April 2023

Locals in Tehran’s Sardar-e Jangal district began chanting anti-regime slogans on Sunday night, including:
“Down with Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“On the blood of our compatriots, we swear to stand to the end!”
“Protests will continue!”
“Down with the dictator!”

On Sunday morning, retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the cities of Shush and Shushtar in southwest Iran held gatherings and launched marches in their city streets, protesting high prices, inflation, low pensions, and other economic woes. They were chanting different slogans, including:
“We will only obtain our rights through street protests!”

Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions in correspondence with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.

The government has long provided many hollow promises of increasing pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.

Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.

Workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company in the city of Shush of Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran held a rally on Sunday protesting their extremely low paychecks determined by the regime’s Supreme Labor Council. These oppressed workers have long been holding rallies, including one on March 30, another on March 25, and also on March 11, protesting the company officials’ refusal to address their demands.

Regional electricity operators rallied outside the provincial governor’s office in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, on Sunday seeking answers to their long-raised demands.

Expelled workers of a pipe company in Bandar Mahshahr, southwest Iran, rallied outside the local governor’s office on Sunday protesting being fired from their jobs.

On Sunday, retirees and pensioners of the regime’s telecommunications industry from Tehran and numerous other provinces rallied in their provincial capital cities protesting their low pensions and poor economic conditions. These rallies were held in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Yazd, Arak, Tabriz, Tehran, Mashhad, Marivan, Hamadan, Khorramabad, Qom, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, and Ardabil, among others. This continues previous rallies held during the past few weeks in Tehran and other cities across the country.

In the past few years, retirees across Iran have been protesting to their deteriorating living conditions, especially as the government refuses to adjust their pensions based on the inflation rate and fluctuations in the price of the rial, Iran’s national currency.

The regime’s new wave of chemical gas attacks targeting schools continued on Sunday. The targets included at least six all-girls schools in Saqqez of Kurdistan Province, western Iran. The schools are Taleghani, Somayeh, Me’raj, Bent al-Hoda Sadr, Esteghlal, and Esmat.

At least 47 students have been transferred to the Khomeini Hospital of Saqqez and 20 of them are reported to be in critical condition. Local activists are reporting that authorities have dispatched anti-riot units in streets across the city and people are chanting anti-regime slogans. At the city’s Me’raj School some of the students were seen chanting “Down with Khamenei!” in reference to regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Other reports indicate regime security forces opened fire on the people gathered around the city’s Shahnaz district. Protesting these chemical gas attacks, locals were seen tearing down the regime’s flags from the roofs of some schools.

Reports also indicate the Jamaran School in the city of Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan in western Iran has also been targeted in a chemical gas attack launched by regime operatives. A number of students have been transferred to a hospital for medical care.

Reports indicate a number of schools in different cities across were targeted in chemical gas attacks by regime operatives on Saturday. The list includes the all-girls Khayam School in Pardis of Tehran Province; two different attacks in the city of Divandarreh in western Iran; the Khalaban Zaker School and all-girls Me’raj School in Ardabil of northwest Iran; the all-girls Sa’adi School in Urmia of northwest Iran; and the all-girls Mohammad Ali Nasiri School in Qom of central Iran.

According reports by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the all-girls Shahed and Fadak schools in the city of Naqadeh in northwest Iran have also been targeted in chemical gas attacks by operatives of the mullahs’ regime.

Nurses in Mashhad, northeast Iran, held a gathering on Saturday morning protesting the regime’s unjust policies that are delaying and decreasing their paychecks and pensions.

Nurses and assistant nurses of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, northeast Iran, held a gathering on Wednesday protesting the regime’s unjust policies that are delaying and decreasing their paychecks and pensions. A similar gathering was held by medical staff of Mashhad’s Qaem Hospital, while personnel and employees of the city’s Construction Engineering Organization also held a gathering on Wednesday to voice their protests.

In further reports of protests by people from different walks of society in Iran, workers of the Jolfa Aras Paraplastic Company in northwest Iran held a gathering demanding their delayed paychecks. In Isfahan, central Iran, farmers are rallying outside the local Water Department demanding their fair share of water for their lands and crops. And in the city of Neyshabur in northeast Iran, local teachers and educators were protesting the regime’s policies and demanding better methods guaranteeing the timely arrival of their monthly salaries.

In Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city in the country’s northeast, local taxi drivers rallied outside the Taxi Organization protesting the violation of their rights by regime officials.

Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi once again emphasized on the importance of women actively participating in political leadership and the struggle against the misogynist mullahs’ regime.

“With the emancipating word of ‘equality’ and with women’s active and equal participation in political leadership, we seek to turn this century in the name of women, into the century of emancipation of women and the humankind,” the NCRI President-elect reiterated.

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.

Previous article
Regime in Iran remains very much concerned over continued protests
Next article
Protests in Iran escalate following new wave of gas attacks targeting schools
Mahmoud Hakamian
RELATED ARTICLES

Selected

fd88217f-1f1b-4525-92f8-1ec00c750fc9_330
PMOI-MEk1-1

Latest News and Articles

No feed found with the ID 1. Go to the All Feeds page and select an ID from an existing feed.

ABOUT PMOI/MEK

MARYAM RAJAVI

NEWS

Publication of website articles and contents are permitted with citation of source © 2022- People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran