NCRI – Iranian security forces have begun arresting lorry drivers delivering firecrackers for the nation’s fire festival – because they view the popular annual event as a threat to the ruling dictatorship.
Iranians have traditionally used the festival on the last Wednesday of the Iranian year to air their grievances against the mullahs regime.
But senior clerics now fear the festivities could escalate into nationwide protests ahead of the June presidential elections.
Colonel Nader Khorsand – the head of the State Security Forces in northern city of Astara – told the state-run Mehr news agency that the driver of a truck loaded with 52,000 firecrackers had been arrested at a checkpoint on the road from Ardebil to Astara.
The man had been charged and he would be appearing in court, Khorsand said.
State security forces had also confiscated more than 96,000 firecrackers and a large amount of materials used to make firecrackers in Alborz Province, central Iran, and another man had been arrested, Mehr news agency reported.
In Tehran, police and SSF agents had also confiscated more than 29 tons of firecracker-making equipment, the agency said.
Damavand City governor Saeid Afshar Naderi said last week: “Despite our country’s Islamic values, the fire festival ceremony on the last Wednesday of the year has changed into a negative cultural behavior.
“The fire festival has no philosophical existence, scientific base and logical explanation.”
Senior regime cleric Mahdavi Kermani has also called on parliament to uproot the Chaharshanbe-suri (Fire Festival) celebrations.
He told MPs in January: “The issue of fire festival and its negative consequences continues to exist in the country. You can act to uproot this issue.”
During the festival – which dates back to the 7th Century – Iranians traditionally celebrate by lighting bonfires and jumping through the flames.
In recent years, security forces have been cracking down on celebration up to two months before it begins by banning firecrackers, sparklers, rockets and even home-made grenades.
