Reports and footages from Iran indicate that on Wednesday, the Iranian regime’s suppressive forces attacked and destroyed impoverished people’s houses in Khorramabad province in western Iran. This took place amid the coronavirus outbreak which has so far claimed the lives of nearly 30,000 people.
On Tuesday, the Khorramabad prosecutor attacked the poor district of Falak-e-din and began destructing houses built by impoverished and flood-stricken people with their own means. This attack was ensued by a series of clashes between security forces with locals who were trying to defend their homes. The regime’s forces savagely began beating residents and injured several elderly locals under the rubbles of houses.
April 15 – Brave locals of the impoverished Falakedin district in Khorramabad, western #Iran, clashed with hundreds of anti-riot units & IRGC Basij members who launched an attack targeting their homes.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/gY3TSJmxda
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 15, 2020
The regime took this repressive and inhumane measure while Khorramabad province is among the provinces with the highest coronavirus mortality rate. Similar to its decision to reopen the business activities amid the coronavirus outbreak and ongoing cover-up and downplaying the crisis, the regime’s attack on these poor people once again confirmed that the mullahs, particularly their president Hassan Rouhani and supreme leader Ali Khamenei, do not care about people’s lives and only try to maintain their grasp on power.
Since the coronavirus outbreak, the regime has pursued a dual-track policy inside and outside of Iran. In Iran, by cover-up, downplaying and inaction, fearing of a possible uprising and trying to control the restive Iranian society, the regime tries to use the coronavirus outbreak as a lever of oppression. In other words, the regime considers the coronavirus outbreak a security threat rather than a humanitarian crisis. On the other hand, abroad through its apologists and lobbyists the mullahs’ regime tries to depict United States sanctions as the reason for the high mortality rate in Iran.
Now destroying impoverished people’s houses, along with forcing people back to work and not releasing prisoners and instead killing them for demanding to be released amid the coronavirus outbreak proves that the regime has taken peoples’ lives hostage and helping this regime will only add to the miseries of the Iranian people, since the mullahs need money to fuel their warmongering and machinery of oppression.
Besides, due to the regime’s institutionalized corruption, the money or loans given to the mullahs will end up in the pockets of the regime’s officials and their relatives.
Farshad Momeni, a regime economist, in an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency, warned that due to the regime’s vast and institutionalized corruption, “Soon, the foreign loan will be usurped and exported by some individuals, so the loan will be rather a foreign rent.”
The Iranian people’s conflict with the mullahs’ regime reached its height during the nationwide Iran protests in November and January. People’s unanimous demand of regime change was yet again heard and seen during the general boycott of the regime’s sham parliamentary election, for which the regime even concealed the coronavirus outbreak to have a larger turnout. The resistance by youth against the suppressive forces yesterday as their houses were attacked was another sign of a restive society, and that the regime’s fear of another turmoil is well-founded.
In this regard, Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, the mayor of Khorramabad, in fear of the public’s outrage over the criminal attack by regime forces, told the state official news agency, IRNA: “Given the Coronavirus outbreak, and the focus of the offices and public services on trying to solve this crisis, some fixers tried to abuse the circumstances and had built (houses) without obtaining necessary permits… The municipality has only tried to impose the regulations and has not taken any action beyond the legal requirements.”
Regarding this issue, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), while expressing her empathy to the people of Falak-e-din, called on Khorramabad’s courageous youth to the aid of the people of Falak-e-din. “The destruction of the home of the deprived people in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis is another sign of the cruelty of the criminal mullahs, who only think about preserving their theocracy. This regime, instead of providing for the livelihoods of the impoverished and quarantining them, it is waging a campaign against them, and destroying their homes that have been built with basic equipment and much hardship,” she said.
The residents of Falakeddin district are victims of the mullahs’ oppression and discrimination. Now, the homes they had greatly suffered to build have been demolished by the regime. I urge the valiant youths of Khorramabad to rush to their aid #Iran
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 15, 2020