Tehran, July 09: The governor of Tehran province warned that security forces will “smash” any attempt at protests on Thursday amid calls for the first significant opposition marches since a major crackdown more than a week ago.
Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have called for new demonstrations in Tehran and several other cities. The calls are a bid to revive street action after police, Revolutionary Guards and Basij militiamen crushed the dramatic mass protests that erupted over Iran’s disputed June 12 presidential election.
There has not been a major protest in 11 days since the crackdown. Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon warned that any new march would meet the same fate.
“If some individuals plan to have anti-security move through listening to a call by counter-revolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” he said, according to the state news agency IRNA in a report late Wednesday.
“Enemies are angry about the calm after the postelection plots and are trying to damage the peace through foreign, counter-revolutionary and notorious networks,” Tamaddon said, adding that public awareness would defuse all “plots” and government would “strongly” provide security.
Thursday morning, there was no overt sign of stepped-up security in the Tehran squares where activists urged supporters to rally.
But authorities appear to have taken a number of other steps to prevent participation. SMS mobile phone messaging was down Thursday for a third straight day — a step believed to be aimed at thwarting protesters’ communications. A similar cutoff took place from the election until a week ago, amid the height of the protests.
The government also closed down universities and called a government holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, citing a heavy dust and pollution cloud that has blanketed Tehran and other parts of the country this week. Many saw the move as aimed at keeping students away from campuses where protests could be organized. Thursday is a weekend day in Iran, and many people used the surprise long holiday to travel to other cities where weather was better.
The calls for protest have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and other pro-opposition Web sites.
The protests have been called to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed.
Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election and that official results showing a landslide victory for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are fraudulent.
Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets for days following the election, demanding a new vote. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid after a partial recount and warned that unrest would not be tolerated.
In the crackdown that followed, at least 20 protesters and 7 Basijis were killed in the crackdown and at least 1,000 people were arrested. Police say most have since been released, but security forces have continued to round up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers.
—Agencies