Following the uprising of the people of Baneh and the protests in other cities in the provinces of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan in protest to the killing of porters, the clerical regime has intensified repression and arrests, and the interrogation and street arrests in these areas. A number of Revolutionary Guards commanders have left Sanandaj and have gone to the border towns. Revolutionary Guards and police have been sent to Baneh from Sanandaj and Hamedan. A number of armoured vehicles equipped with water cannons have also been sent to the city of Bokan to throw tear gas. The regime has severed or significantly limited communications from Baneh, Marivan, Sardasht, and Piranshahr cities in order to prevent spreading of the news and information, and has arrested a number of social network activists, especially in Baneh.
On Monday, September 11, following a call by a group of porters, workers and businessmen of the border town of Rabt in Western Azerbaijan, to protest the killing of the porters, riot police and plainclothes mercenaries were deployed in this town densely. They were interrogating or following passersby’s with various excuses in order to intimidate the people and prevent their protests.
On September 10, repressive forces arrested several people at a mass gathering in Mahabad. The gathering was held in support of the uprising of Baneh, to protest the killing of poor porters and in solidarity with the protests of other cities in Kurdistan. Protesters in different cities of Kurdistan want to stop the killing of porters.
The people of the cities of Sanandaj and Kermanshah also rallied in solidarity with the uprising of the Baneh people on September 7 and 8. The protest rallies also ended in conflicts and a number of people were arrested.
The protests followed the uprising of the people of Baneh on September 4 and 5 in protest to the killing of two porters, Haidar Faraji, 21, and Ghader Bahrami, 45, who were killed by the criminal guards on September 4.
With the spread of protests, the criminal prosecutor of the regime announced that they had arrested shooters of porters and that investigation had begun. But the killing of porters and the persecution and oppression of the oppressed people of Kurdistan and the border areas continue.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 13, 2017
