HomeNEWSIRAN NEWSIran’s Baloch people resume anti-regime protests despite heavy security measures
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Iran’s Baloch people resume anti-regime protests despite heavy security measures

By Mahmoud Hakamian
Iran Protests - January 27, 2023
According to latest reports protesters in at least 282 cities throughout Iran’s 31 provinces have taken to the streets for 134 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 – 9:00 pm CET

The Baloch people of Zahedan and other cities of Sistan & Baluchestan Province are continuing their anti-regime protests by taking to the streets yet again on Friday. Locals are chanting slogans targeting the very top echelons of the mullahs’ regime, being their Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his entire crackdown apparatus, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the paramilitary Basij.

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 637 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

In Zahedan, the capital of Sistan & Baluchestan Province in southeast Iran, regime authorities have been flying military helicopters over the city to install a climate of fear among locals prior to today’s demonstrations, according to activists. There have also been additional checkpoints installed in various parts of the city.

On Friday, people in Zahedan, Rask, Khash, and Galikesh in Golestan Province of northeast Iran have taken to the streets in anti-regime protests. They’re chanting slogans against the mullahs’ regime and their security forces. Demonstrators in Zahedan were seen holding a large placard with a slogan rejecting any return to the Shah’s dictatorship or a monarchical rule.

The demonstrators in Zahedan, at times surrounded by the regime’s oppressive security forces, were seen chanting a variety of anti-regime slogans, including:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“So many years of crimes! Death to the mullahs’ regime!”
“Death to the Basij!”
“We have nothing to eat!”
“Khamenei is a murderer!”
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Death to the Basij! Death to the IRGC!”
“Khamenei, have some shame! Let go of the country!”
“Poverty-Corruption-High prices! We’re going to overthrow the regime!”
“Death to mokhbers [the regime’s spies]!”

At least three civilians were arrested by the regime’s plainclothes agents, according to local activists.

On Friday evening, locals in Tehran’s various districts, including Sadeghiyeh and Tehranpars, began chanting anti-regime slogans specifically targeting Khamenei and the mullahs’ entire apparatus. The slogans included:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to the IRGC!”
“We will not have a country as long as the mullahs are in power!”

In the city of Izeh in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, people gathered on Friday to hold a ceremony in memory of Saeed Saeedi, a protester killed by the regime’s security forces in recent Iran revolution protests. Local authorities have taken extensive measure and deployed numerous security units to prevent any possible anti-regime rallies at the gathering.

Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi hailed the people of Zahedan and the entire province of Sistan & Baluchestan Province for showing courage in continuing their protests against the mullahs’ regime.

“The courageous people of Zahedan and Rask took to the streets after their Friday prayer chanting, ‘Death to Khamenei,’ ‘Death to Basij’ and ‘Khamenei is a criminal’. Our Baluch compatriots displayed the resolve of all Iranians to overthrow the regime and achieve freedom,” the NCRI President-elect highlighted.

On Friday the NCRI President-elect also sent a message to the Arab-Islamic Conference in Brussels, “Solidarity with the Iranian people’s democratic revolution”, emphasizing that overthrowing the mullahs’ regime is a prerequisite to liberating Iran and the Middle East of the scourge of religious extremism, terrorism, and warmongering.

“The people of Iran have refuted both the past and present regimes thousands of times by their chants of ‘Down with the oppressor, be it the shah or the mullahs’ supreme leader!’ and similar slogans. As such, the Iranian people have rejected all forms of dictatorship,” she explained.

“We called on Middle East countries to establish a common front against the clerical regime, with the Iranian people and resistance as decisive components. Such a front is a prerequisite to the swift liberation of Iran and the region from religious extremism, terrorism, and warmongering. The region and the world will not achieve peace and tranquility until they target the epicenter of fundamentalism, i.e., the mullahs’ regime. The alternative, the NCRI is fighting for a free Iran that brings friendship, fraternity, and peace to the Middle East and the world,” the NCRI President-elect reiterated.

On Thursday a number of attacks were reported by protesters targeting IRGC-affiliated buildings in different cities across Iran. In Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran, local youths torched the entrance of an IRGC paramilitary Basij units base.

In Isfahan, central Iran, locals attack a branch of Bank Sepah, associated to the IRGC and used in their corrupt rule over the country’s economy. In the city of Naqadeh in West Azerbaijan Province of northwest Iran, protesters used Molotov cocktails in an attack targeting the home of a local regime agent.

There were also reports of an explosion targeting the home of regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini in the city of Qom, located south of Tehran in central Iran.

On Thursday evening, locals in Tehran began chanting anti-regime slogans specifically targeting Khamenei and the mullahs’ entire apparatus. The slogans included:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the child-killing regime!”
“Khamenei, you murderer! We will bury you!”
“Death to the murderous Khamenei!”
“Death to the Basij!”
“Death to the IRGC!”
“This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!”
“So many years of crimes! Death to the mullahs’ regime!”

In Tehran, school employees, staff, and janitors from across the country gathered in the Iranian capital on Thursday to protest their low paychecks and poor living conditions. The destructive status of Iran’s economy is making it extremely for people in various parts of the society to put food on the table for their families and many are resorting to drastic measures to make ends meet.

In Karaj, a major city located just west of Tehran, workers and employees of the Farmand Chocolate Company are on strike demanding better paychecks in the face of their poor living conditions.

In the city of Dargaz in North Khorasan University, northeast Iran, taxi drivers are on strike, protesting the closure of local CNG stations. This is while Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves. These are further signs of the regime’s corruption and incompetence ruining the lives of ordinary Iranians.

In the city of Izeh, western Iran, regime authorities dispatched numerous security units to block a road leading to the site where locals planned a ceremony for Mahmoud Ahmadi, killed by the mullahs’ security forces in the recent Iran revolution protests. Those who were able to attend the ceremony began chanting anti-regime slogans, including: “Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!” the latter referring to regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini.

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.

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