Tehran, July 09: Hundreds of young men and women chanted “death to the dictator” and fled baton-wielding police in the capital on Thursday as opposition activists sought to revive street protests despite authorities’ vows to “smash” any new marches.
For days, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been calling for new protests in Tehran and other cities today, their first significant attempt to get back on the streets since security forces crushed massive demonstrations nearly two weeks ago in Iran’s post-election turmoil.
Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march today would meet the same fate.
“If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to calls by counterrevolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” he said, according to the state news agency in a report last evening.
Today afternoon, a stepped-up number of uniformed policemen along with plainclothes Basiji militiamen stood at intersections all along Revolution Street and at nearby near Tehran University, some of the sites where protests were called.
Still, a group of around 300 young people gathered in front of Tehran University and began to chant, “Death to the dictator,” witnesses said.
–PTI–