Fearing student protests, the mullahs’ Supreme Leader cancels a scheduled session at the Science and Industry University
A number of students have been arrested
NCRI – The suppressive State Security Forces (SSF) –mullahs’ suppressive police– and the mullah regime’s intelligence agents have been stationed since Sunday morning, December 7, 2008, around all entrances to Tehran University as well as the surrounding streets, and an undeclared martial law has been imposed. Scores of SSF agents were keeping watch at street corners leading to Tehran University on Sunday. The extent of the security watch by the regime’s agents went beyond Taleqani, Qods, Enqelab avenues and covered a swath of roads and streets starting from Enqelab Square to Shirazi Avenue.
Several days ago, the regime’s Supreme National Security Council, which is in a state of panic and fear due to the possibility of university student protests and demonstrations across Iran, issued an order to the regime’s SSF and other security agencies banning commemoration of “Student Day” and all forms of university gatherings, and ordered the regime’s suppressive forces to prevent at any cost student gatherings on Sunday in Tehran University.
Suppressive SSF forces clashed with students on Saturday night. Agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided the homes of several student activists studying at Tehran University, conducted searches, took possession of belongings, and arrested the students. Last night, as well, three other student activists at Tehran University were arrested by the university’s security as they were leaving the premises and handed over to the regime’s plain-clothes agents stationed outside the campus.
The regime had also intended to organize a gathering of 5,000 Bassij Force agents in front of Tehran University in order to confront protests organized by freedom-loving students. However, this morning the regime only managed to muster 150 of its MOIS agents and Bassij Force, transporting them by buses from other towns to Tehran University. Based on reports obtained from Resistance sources inside Iran, these forces were not able to confront the wave of anti-regime student protests.
The regime’s SSF agents were barring dissident students from entry to the University’s premises. By establishing blocks and security card systems, they also prevented students from other universities from entering Tehran University. Security forces were also openly threatening people who wanted to join the university protests with arrest and imprisonment.
Despite all the pressure and threats from the suppressive forces, student protests eventually gained momentum with the thunderous roars of “Death to Dictator,” “Students Die, But Surrender They Shall Not,” and “We are fighters, men and women, Fight us and we will fight” encompassing the campus atmosphere. The regime’s Special Anti-protest Units surrounded the university with dozens of vehicles and started to clash with students.
The SSF also entered the scene and began to beat and arrest some of the protestors. The students also collectively sang the popular “My Student Companion,” and the banned national anthem “Hail Iran, Land of Jewels,” and continued to march on. Seeking to prevent the joining of the people with university protests, the regime’s suppressive forces had stationed a large number of buses in front of Tehran University separating the two. The people could only hear the students’ shouts and slogans.
An undeclared martial law also took effect at Tehran University at 8 A.M. Colonel Zamani, in charge of suppressing worker protests, and Colonel Motahari, both of whom are well-known criminal security agents, were pacing around Tehran University with police radios, cell phones and other equipment in hand, commanding the numerous SSF agents there. Plain-clothes agents and SSF forces in Kargar, 12-Farvardin, Fakhr Razi, and 16-Azar avenues threatened and arrested people. MOIS agents resorted to arresting those with cameras or cell phones capable of taking pictures, putting hand cuffs on them and taking them away from the scene.
Hundreds of university students angrily protesting against the regime’s martial law in Tehran University, marched toward the 16-Azar entrance of the University, and after dismantling the gate, enabled other students to enter the campus. At that point, students shouted other chants, some of which included, “Guns, Tanks, Bassiji: No Longer Effective,” “Nation, Why the Silence? Iran Has Turned into Palestine,” “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Source of Corruption and Discrimination,” and “Free Imprisoned Students.”
Student protestors then marched toward the holding place of three of their detained classmates, seeking to free them. They threatened that unless the students were freed, they would break the doors and free them by force. Heeding the warning and fearful of a confrontation, several minutes later, security agents released the three detained students.
In addition to the widespread protests in Tehran University and simultaneous to them, courageous students at universities in other cities such as Isfahan, Tabriz, Hamedan, Babel and Babelsar, Orumieh, Qazvin, Shiraz, Ilam, Birjand, Sanandaj, and Bo-Ali Sina University in Hamedan, commemorated “Student Day” and turned into scenes of protest against the suppressive policies and measures of the religious fascism ruling Iran.
The regime’s officials, sensing unease and extreme trepidation in the face of increasing acts of protest, avoided appearing at previously scheduled sessions for “Student Day” in various universities. The mullahs’ Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who was scheduled to appear at the Science and Industry University, later cancelled. The mullahs’ former President, Mohammad Khatamei, who had announced his intentions to speak at Tehran University on Sunday, also cancelled the meeting after reports of widespread campus protests against the regime.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 7, 2008
