Iran: Nationwide Protests, This Time Dervishes
NCRI – Tehran’s Police Chief Hossein Rahimi describing the recent clashes said that the police could show harsher behaviors.
Officials of the Iranian regime have said that about 300 people have been arrested in recent clashes between police and dervishes in Golestan 7th neighbourhood, Pasdaran Avenue, in Tehran.
The Ganabadi Dervishes’ Majzoban Noor telegram channel has also announced that some of the detained dervishes have been “beaten and severely wounded by police”.
Along with that, Tehran’s police chief Hossein Rahimi speaking harshly on the events of the Pasdaran Avenue said: “The continence and moderate encounter is different from appeasement. For example, we could solve the issue by firing an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade).”
Tehran’s police chief Hossein Rahimi
Javad Karimi Qodousi, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian regime’s parliament, also warned about “the actions and disturbances of the extremist dervishes” and called them “a branch separated from the Gonabadi dervishes sect,” that “have no interest in the Islamic Republic system.”
Karimi Qodousi also noted that in recent events “300 members and 95 percent of Dervish leaders have been arrested.”
Following the arrest and detention of hundreds of Gonabadi Nematolla Dervishes, a committee was set up to investigate the situation of the imprisoned dervishes. In its first statement, the committee considered itself as “free of political inclination” and described its most important goals as “protecting the rights of prisoners, investigating the situation of the victims and their families, and publishing news about the imprisoned dervishes.”
Part of the group’s statement says, “In the past days, many of our faith brothers in Tehran, Shiraz and Khorramabad have been arrested and imprisoned at the same time by the police and security forces in a coordinated action.”
The group reiterates in its statement, “violent behavior and oppression and violations of any person’s human rights are not acceptable, and that the injustice by the governments and those who hold the power against the people, especially because of their thoughts and beliefs, is a sign of ignorance and irrationality.”