Shiraz Protests: Plainclothes Agents And Basijis Played Big Role in Crackdown

The Central Areas of Shiraz: Two Days of Demonstrations and Clashes

“They brought in more than 300 people with gunshot wounds. In this hospital hallways connect  the wards. They fenced off a ward and closed all its doors. They brought all the wounded from recent events to this ward and assigned specific doctors and medical staff to that ward. They are going to transfer all the wounded to prison after treatment.”

This is how one medical staff member at Namazi Hospital in Shiraz described the scene there on Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17, 2019.

Protests started on Saturday morning at Shiraz Industrial Park. Reports said that security forces in Shiraz had concentrated on Setad Square and Namazi Street going toward the university. Mina (an alias) says the security forces seemed prepared for the possibility of protests in the area and the university remained calm.

But in the afternoon, the situation at Paramount Crossroad in front of Zeitoon Shopping Center was very different. “To get to Paramount you could go until the entrance to Hedayat Street but from that point on, the police had closed the road and neither the cars nor the pedestrians were allowed to go any further,” says Mina.

Then protests and clashes broke out starting from the beginning of Hedayat Street going toward Moshir Fatemi Street and reached Paramount Crossroad and Zeitoon Shopping Center. At Paramount Crossroad, in front of the gas station opposite the shopping center, people sat on the street. A group of young shopkeepers and street vendors started the protests gradually others joined them. People were chanting and from the very beginning of the protests, and shouts of “Death to the dictator!” could be heard, but only from a few in the crowd.

“While I was there most of the chants that I heard were ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon; my life for Iran,’” says Mina. “I must point out that neither here nor anywhere else on Saturday and Sunday did I hear slogans in support of the monarchy. This was unlike the 2017-2018 protests when you could hear many monarchist slogans.”

“When the clashes started the police beat people with batons and almost every five minutes they would throw a teargas grenade,” she says. “On that day there was no shooting at Paramount Crossroad. They had driven part of the crowd into Zeitoon Shopping Center and had closed the door so nobody could go in or come out. The salespeople had virtually become prisoners. Around 5:30 to 6 in the afternoon police finally succeeded in dispersing people from the location.”

After leaving the crowd in front of Zeitoon, Mina walked toward Saadi Cinema. “A big fire was burning there,” she says. “There were many security agents from Molla Sadra in the area near Saadi Cinema and they would disperse any group of more than two, but closer to the cinema there were few of them and there were fires burning at every 20, 30 meters or so.”

The streets leading to Saadi Cinema were closed from Saturday at noon. Mina says that close to 50 people were sitting around a fire and chanting “Death to the dictator!” Among them, she said, were “a considerable number of women and most of the protesters were poor and working class. Most of them were between 20 to 30 years old. Of the men, very few were middle-aged but middle-aged and older women were there as well.”

According to Mina, the first thing protesters did was break the surveillance camera: “It was a very young man who did this and the people encouraged him a lot. At that hour most of the police were in Moali Abad and Sadra City. The crossroads at Cinema Saadi had been occupied by the people. After a while one protester said, ‘let’s go toward the banks.’ There were three banks were near Saadi Cinema. They first broke the cameras and then the windows and traffic signs but nobody entered the banks. And there was no sign of the anti-riot police.”

Around 8pm protesters in the center of the city were mostly gathered around Molla Sadra Crossroad. There are two banks on two sides of the intersection. There were not many anti-riot police there, but those who were there threw teargas grenades and fired shots into the air, although not at the people. According to Mina, people had come from the direction of Afif Abad and Saadi Cinema, blocking the intersection and setting things on fire: “Some of the young protesters had broken surveillance cameras and traffic lights and were busy breaking the windows of the banks. Some entered the banks when others encouraged them. They brought equipment from inside the bank into the street and threw them into the fire. They were not doing it in anger but saw it as a victory and people were rejoicing.”

After a while, however, the number of policemen increased, and they drove their motorcycles into the crowd to disperse the now tired protesters.

On Sunday, the internet was blocked and the city was practically shut down. There were rumors of clashes in Golestan, Sadra and Moali Abad and that one person had been killed in Moali Abad. According to Mina, the city was mostly deserted, apart from a huge police presence. “It was full of police toward the university, toward Setad where the governor’s office is located and even towards Roudaki. There were also many Basijis on motorcycles. They were carrying shields and riding motorcycles that were different from those of the police. They were riding in tandem and one of them must have been armed. We moved toward Moali Abad. We rode part of the way on motorbike and we walked the next part. At the entrance to the metro station next to Moali Abad Street there was a lot of dust and smoke but it was not clear what had been burned.”

On Sunday the police were not allowing anybody to enter Moali Abad. On top of the Alef Building — the Golestan Cineplex with a few floors of commercial space above it — where Moali Boulevard starts, a number of people with binoculars surveyed what was going on below. Mina says that she and a group of other people found their way to Moali Abad through an alleyway behind the Dry River: “Since the morning the protesters had blocked every street up to the Sanaye area. When [private] cars wanted to pass through they would either open the way for them or, if it were not possible, they would help them to turn around. No private property was damaged. Even a bank was spared because somebody said that the floors above were residential so they did not set it on fire. From what I saw, not even one property that belonged to the people was damaged.”

At Tachara Boulevard shopkeepers were telling people not to go any further because there were clashes between the police and the protesters, with people using billboards and traffic signs to block the road. On Sunday morning, Mina says, protesters controlled the Tachara underpass, by which satellite towns connect to Shiraz city itself, whereas on the Moali Abad side, the Basijis were in control of the situation. “There were perhaps about 100 two-seater motorcycles. They had shields and arms and they had covered their faces. They were very young. Since morning there had been clashes between these Basijis and the people along this underpass. People had taken shelter in a dead-end alley where a big residential complex is located and the Basijis were not allowing anybody to leave the alley.”

She said people were trying to go toward Moali Abad but the Basijis were blocking them; whenever people tried to advance a little, the Basijis used teargas to stop them. Mina said there were many plainclothes agents in the crowd. “It was very strange. For whatever reason, the Basijis wanted to clear the entrance to that alley and the moment they did, a number of plainclothes agents — who until then seemed to be just spectators — stepped forward and blocked the alley.”

The clashes and the standoff lasted like this for a few hours. “Nobody moved forward and nobody retreated,” Mina said. “But the crowd grew bigger and more aggressive and they rained stones on the Basijis and the Basijis retreated. But then something bad happened: the plainclothes agents again disappeared into the crowd.”

“At the same time we heard that a lot was happening in Moali Abad and people wanted to get there,” she said. “I walked with the crowd and we got close to Moali Abad Bridge. People were not chanting very much. What people wanted was to reach the bridge so they could extricate the protesters who were trapped there. The way to the bridge was barricaded. Protesters were destroying surveillance cameras and traffic signs. There is an overpass there that goes from the direction of Ghasrodasht toward Moali Abad. Between Tachara and Moali Abad Crossroads there is a straight street as well as a road that bends a little and goes through the upscale township of Dinakan. Of course, both roads start and end at the same place. Police were waiting at the bend of that road to crush people and started throwing teargas at them. The aim was to prevent people from crossing Moali Abad Bridge and joining the protesters there. They wanted to exhaust people and force them to go home.”

The clashes here and on Moali Abad overpass lasted for an hour on a stretch perhaps no longer than 200 meters. “The residents of Dinakan had joined the protesters,” Mina said. “They had come out in slippers and the women were wearing floral chadors. After an hour people were exhausted from trying to break through the police to reach Moali Abad and little by little they retreated. But further away from Moali Abad Bridge, people were controlling the road and no police were there.”

According to Mina, on Sunday night in Moali Abad, the highest number of clashes between police and the people took place at the Prison Crossroads and Rahmat Boulevard. In Rahmat Boulevard they set the Communications Bureau on fire. “In Tachara Boulevard the people, or individuals among them, started setting banks on fire. They were mostly young men between 30 and 40 years old. Most of the protesters had come from the Sajjadyeh, Sadra and Golestan townships. A number of them were carrying alcohol or gas to set fires to disperse the teargas. They brought out everything from inside the bank onto the street and set them on fire in front of the bank.”

Around 8pm somebody shouted that the police were coming and the people dispersed. It was raining and it was cold. “Earlier people had been sitting around fires to warm themselves,” Mina said. “Some would go into the banks, brought out whatever they wanted and threw it into the fire. It was like a collective festival. That night they set four banks on fire.”

Mina says on Monday it was raining hard and, as far as she knows, there were either no clashes in Shiraz or the clashes were so limited that they were not reported. On Tuesday, the city was back to normal.

 

This is the third of four articles about protests in Shiraz and the surrounding areas. Read the other articles in the series: 

 

Shiraz Protests: People Threw Stones. Officers Killed Them

Shiraz Protests: Security Forces Shot at Protesters as They Tried to Get Away

Shiraz Protests: Agents Might Have Set Banks on Fire Themselves