Nationwide uprising – Statement 128

NCRI - According to the Social Headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) inside Iran, on Thursday afternoon at Vali Asr Square and streets leading to it, extensive clashes took place among people and the Iranian regime’s suppressive forces. Plainclothes agents on motorcycles chased people on streets and violently beat them with batons. A large number of youths were arrested and detained. When the forces failed to disperse the population in this area, they opened fire on protestors. People chanted, “Death to dictator,” and “Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is illegitimate.”

At about 18:30 local time, special units suddenly attacked a crowd of people on Shariati Street in between the junctures of Motahari Street and Abbasabad Street. Dozens were brutally beaten and arrested.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Tehran on Thursday braved the scorching heat to take to the streets to mark the 40th day after the June 20th uprising and to remember that day’s victims. In accordance with orders issued by the clerical regime’s officials, the air conditioning system in Tehran’s metro was turned off in order to dissuade people from participating in the protests by taking the city’s metro.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 30, 2009