Iran Law Enforcement Shoots Another Teenager
Iran's law enforcement has killed another teenager by erratically targeting a car in Qazvin Province according to social media reports.
Iran's law enforcement has killed another teenager by erratically targeting a car in Qazvin Province according to social media reports.
1500 Tasvir, a Twitter account dedicated to the news of protests in Iran, reported that Mehrdad Malek a 17-year-old teenager was killed Monday evening after police patrol officers shot him in his friend’s car in Datshtabi region in Qazvin province about 200 km west of Tehran.
“Mehrdad and his friend were driving home when police patrol became suspicious of them and started chasing them,” said 1500 Tasvir, adding that the patrol officers started shooting at the car after their own vehicle got stuck in mud during the chase, presumably to prevent the two suspects fleeing the scene. Mehrdad died on the spot after one of the bullets hit him.
Very little is known about the details of the shooting or the reason the police put up a chase to the car. Authorities have not made any comments about the deadly shooting yet.
On Sunday another child was shot dead in her family’s car in Hormozgan Province. Soha Etebari, 12, and her family were on the road to Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan, from Bastak in Hormozgan Province when plainclothes security forces started shooting at the car at a checkpoint. Soha died of her injuries on the way to the hospital.
The police claim they suspected drug trafficking because the vehicle’s windows were dark. The incident happened on the eve of the 40th-day memorial of Kian Pirfalak, the 9-year-old boy who was shot dead in Izeh, Khuzestan on November 16 during an evening of protests.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization says at least 476 people including 64 children and 34 women, have been killed by security forces after the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.
Massoud Pezeshkian, a member of the Iranian Parliament from Tabriz told Didban Iran website that "a large number of people are protesting to the problems in the Iranian society." He added, "These are real problems and that government had better listen to the people's grievances and attend to their demands." Meanwhile he called on the Iranian government to treat the nation compassionately.
He added that the difficulties Iranians are currently facing stem from the government, the Judiciary and the behavior of Iranian clerics. Pezeshkian said, "some 98 percent of Iranians voted for the Islamic Republic in 1979. What have we done in the meantime that so many people have turned away from it?"
In another development of Tuesday, which showed Iran's top officials are still in denial of the country's problems, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi claimed that everything is in good shape and the country has had eye-catching progress, angering the enemies who instigated the protests in Iran.
Not only the president denied the country is facing a multi-faceted crisis, he also vowed not to have any mercy on protesters and those who stand against the government.
Meanwhile, in an interview with ISNA, which was also carried by several other media outlets in Iran, centrist politician Hossein Marashi said that an association of top clerics who have called for the execution of protesters and amputation of their fingers and toes should apologize to the nation.
Marashi, who is the deputy chief of Iran's Reform Front, hoped that the Association of Seminary Teachers would deny the contents of the statement that called for violent treatment of protesters and prisoners. He said the statement came as a surprise, adding that if this approach continues, it will lead to a form of Talebanism in Iran. Marashi reiterated that statements like this are an insult to Islam.
Referring to previous calls by some officials about holding dialogue with reform-minded individuals, Marashi said that "there is no reason to continue the dialogue under the current circumstances although we generally support the idea of dialogue."
Meanwhile, referring to the statements made by several Friday prayers imams who have accused government's critics of apostasy, Marashi called on the imams to apologize to the nation and pay attention to what the critics say in order to find out a way out of the country's crisis.
In another development, in an article on Etemad Online website, reformist commentator Abbas Abdi warned that a full-fledged economic crisis is going to hit Iranians soon.
Abdi referred to a forecast by the Raisi administration at the beginning of its term in the summer of 2021 about economic growth by 2027. The forecast said that if US sanctions remain in force at the end of the period economic growth will be just 1.7 percent, inflation rate will reach 54 percent and the Iranian rial will fall by 50 percent.
All these have already happened, and it is just 2022.
The forecast, which was generally ignored and was forgotten by even some experts. At the time, the authors of the forecast were accused of portraying a bleak image to force the government to accept to return to the JCPOA, Abdi said.
Abdi noted that the situation is even worse as the government has currently forgotten about its promises to create millions of jobs and build millions of homes. He added that in the best-case scenario, even if Iran returns to the JCPOA, although the situation will look slightly better, overall the future Iranian economy does not look good.
