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Iranwire – Tensions are running high in Iran’s mainly Kurdish town of Abdanan, with activists reporting a heavy presence of security forces and widespread arrests as the Islamic Republic intensifies its brutal crackdown on nationwide anti-government demonstrators.
On February 2, security forces raided the house of a political activist and fired tear gas and pellets at protesters who had gathered in the streets in protest.
The situation in the town in western Ilam province has been increasingly tense since February 1, when a group of residents reportedly protested the arrest of two protesters, identified as Sajjad Moradivandan and Ayat Arifinia.
The provincial public prosecutor told state media that at least 10 civilians were arrested and five were injured that day.
Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, said it had identified six of those arrested: Majid Mirzaei, Mojtab Saeedi, Mohammad Cheraghi, Amir Hossein Namdarpour, Zabihullah Jamadi and Saman Moradivandan.
According to the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Cheraghi and Moradivandan were taken to an undisclosed location.
Abdanan has been a hotspot of nationwide protests triggered by the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Tehran’s morality police.
The security forces have cracked down hard on the women-led protest movement, killing more than 520 people, including dozens of children, and detaining over 18,000, activists say. Following biased trials, the judiciary handed down stiff sentences, including the death penalty, to protesters.
The demonstrations and clampdown on dissent have been particularly intense in the country’s western Kurdish areas and the province of Sistan and Baluchistan, home to the country’s Sunni Baluch minority.
