Iran’s president links ‘terrorist’ attacks to protests
IRAN’S president yesterday claimed “riots” sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death paved the way for “terrorist” attacks, a day after a gunman killed at least 15 people at a Muslim shrine.
The bloody attack in the city of Shiraz came as thousands of mourners paid tribute to Amini on Wednesday in her western hometown, 40 days after her death in police custody.
Ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the two tragedies yesterday, declaring that “the intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country’s progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts”.
Raisi vowed “a severe response” over the mass killing at the Shia Muslim Shah Cheragh mausoleum during evening prayers – an attack claimed by Sunni extremist group Islamic State.
Protests have gripped Iran since
Amini, a 22-year-old of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.
The rallies have been led by young women who have burned their headscarves and confronted security forces, in the biggest wave of unrest to rock Iran for years. Six weeks after Amini’s death, the demonstrations show no signs of ending, fuelled by public outrage over a crackdown that has claimed the lives of other young women.
Despite heightened security measures, columns of mourners had poured into Amini’s hometown of Saqez in Kurdistan province on Wednesday, paying tribute at her grave at the end of the traditional mourning period.
Mourners chanted at the Aichi cemetery outside Saqez, before many were seen heading to the governor’s office in the city centre, where Iranian media outlets said some were poised to attack an army base.
“Security forces have shot tear gas and opened fire on people in Zindan square, Saqez city,” the Hengaw rights group said, without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded.
After nightfall, blasts were heard as security forces fired on protesters in Marivan, Kurdistan province, in a video published by Hengaw, a Norwaybased organisation.
“Death to the dictator,” chanted protesters in the nearby city of Bukan, where bonfires burned in the streets, the rights group said.
Protesters also surrounded a base of the Basij militia in Sanandaj, a flashpoint city in Kurdistan province, starting fires and driving security forces back, it added. There were similar scenes in Ilam city, near Iran’s western border with Iraq.
Iran’s Isna news agency said the internet had been cut in Saqez for “security reasons”, and that nearly 10 000 people had gathered in the city.
But many thousands more were seen making their way in cars, on motorbikes and on foot along a highway, through fields and even across a river, in videos widely shared online.
Noisily clapping, shouting and hooting car horns, mourners packed the highway linking Saqez to the cemetery 8km away.
Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Raisi after the attack in Shiraz, and also confirmed his readiness to increase co-operation in the fight against terrorism, the Kremlin said yesterday.