Fire Festival – No. 6
The uprising of the courageous people and youth in Tehran and other cities on the occasion of the Fire Festival with slogans of “Death to Khamenei”, “Death to dictator”, and “Mubarak, Ben Ali, turn of Seyyed Ali” and setting pictures of henchman Khamenei on fire in different sections of the city took place at a time when the fearful clerical regime attempted to prevent protests from taking place through all sorts of suppressive means.
Some of these measures were:
1. Leaders of the regime had officially declared observing this festivity as against Shari’a and unlawful; or they resorted to all sorts of threats to prevent the youth from participating in the Fire Festival.
2. A headquarters to control the crisis was set up and it issued various commands including putting all suppressive IRGC, Basij and Security forces on alert.
3. Commander of Sarollah military base, where headquarters for all suppressive and security forces in Tehran is located, brought in the Seyyed al-Shohada Division to assist Mohammad Division.
4. Checkpoints were set up in various locations a day in advance to enhance the control of vehicles and motorcycles; many motorcycles were locked up.
5. Brigades from the Basij, the IRGC, and special units of the security forces were stationed at 70 locations in Tehran judged as sensitive. The force allocated to suppress the protests is estimated to have been around 150,000.
6. Mandates were issued by the security forces and provincial authorities to all municipalities to refrain from declaring any locations as allocated to the Fire Festival.
7. Tehran’s mayor issued orders for emptying all trash bins, barring sell of gasoline in containers at the gas stations, collecting all construction debris such as bricks and stones in addition to tree branches, scraped vehicles.
8. Posters and brochures were extensively distribution by the Ministry of Education in schools warning of the dangers of Fire Festival to frighten pupils. On Tuesday, classes were dismissed late.
9. Banning motorcycles from 1 pm and forced closure of shops from 5 pm.
10. Broadcasting interference on the internet and phone networks.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 16, 2011
