Footprints of MKO Terrorists, Monarchists Seen in Recent Unrests in Southwestern Iran

Rasa - The protests in the city of Kazeroun in Southwestern Iran ended and the situation came under control after Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCRI) and monarchists, specially the son of the former Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi sought to provoke violence.

News ID: 437781

Date: 19 May 2018 - 22:28

RNA - Kazeroun had been the scene of unrests over the recent days amid protests against a demarcation plan to divide the governorate.

The protests in front of a police station took a violent turn after a number of people set fie to a police station, leaving at least one dead and six wounded.

Some protestors set fire to parts of the station and police vehicles.

The plan, drawn up by Kazeroun representative at the parliament Hossein Rezazadeh in November 2017, aimed to separate the ancient site of Bishapur, and a few other landmarks from Kazeroun and annex them to the newly planned town of Kouhchenar.

The protesters said the landmarks are part of Kazeroun's identity and should not be separated.

During the peaceful protests held for several days with the participation of nearly 5,000 people no clashes erupted between the security forces and protesters.

The issue then was pursued by Kazeroun's provisional Friday prayers leader during his meetings with the government and parliament officials in Tehran and he told the people at the Friday prayers that the plan has been put on hold.

Also, Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri assured people of Kazeroun that the government has not yet made any decision on the merging plan.

After the officials' remarks, people in Kazeroun stopped protests for 20 days until April 16 when a suspicious demonstration was organized on the social networking platform Telegram, this time in front of police stations instead of the main city square.

The small number of people participating in the new protest rallies chanted radical slogans irrelevant to the demarcation plan and started violence by setting fire to the police's intelligence-security building.

The violence made the police to exercise force to push back the protestors and prevent their access to police ammunition. During the clashes one person was killed but not by police shooting. 6 others were wounded. Reports said the victim was killed by a gunshot but not from a police gun.

But the social media propaganda released fake reports about the incident to show the situation uncontrollable. They claimed that the security forces who intended to deploy in the town via its airport were identified by people and were detained. This was a lie as Kazeroun has no airport.

Also, the son of the former Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, in a tweet annexed by the #Kazeroun-in-Blood (#کازرون-در-خون) called on protestors to continue rallies and resist against the security forces.

Meantime, Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist group which has killed and assassinated thousands of Iranian people in the past four decades after the Islamic Revolution called on people in Kazeroun and other nearby towns to help those who have been detained during the protests, while the nearby towns are supporting the demarcation plan as they demand to be separated from Kazeroun to be allocated an independent budget.

A day later, people of Kazeroun changed course of actions and condemned those who had set fire to the police station in pursuit of increasing violence.

Governor-general of Fars province told reporters on Thursday that "the situation in Kazeroun is now fully under control and those who want to misuse the clean sentiments of people will fail".

Also, Iran’s interior ministry in a statement on Thursday underlined that the plan to divide parts of the Kazeroun has stopped, describing the unrest as the result of provocations by the enemies and anti-revolutionary websites.

According to Fars News Agancy, the ministry also expressed regret over the Wednesday night incident in Kazeroun.

It added that the ministry’s experts have several times traveled to the city to listen to the concerns of the people in Kazeroun and take them into account.

The statement said that considering demands by the people, the plan has stopped and won’t be implemented until logical concerns of the Kazeroun people are addressed.

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