Anniversary of the Plasco Fire and Building Collapse

On the anniversary of the Plasco fire and building collapse, the Citizen newspaper headlines with "Plasco Dizziness" stating: "Survivors of the fallen firefighters are upset that their loved ones are not considered martyrs" and emphasize that "the culprits of this incident must be identified and punished without any considerations." Hamid Hajipour, a journalist for Iran newspaper who was among those reporting around the clock during the Plasco fire, noted in a commentary that 16 firefighters and several workers in Plasco lost their lives, writing: "Plasco caught fire, burned itself, and collapsed. It knelt down and, along with the 16 firefighters who bravely fought the fire, succumbed to a tragic fate. Now, a year has passed since that never-ending nightmare. Even now, when I stand in front of the Plasco grave, it feels like the smell of smoke and fire tightens my chest, and I cough. I cannot forget the nights when they moved twisted metal to find a glimmer of hope. On the first night, they said the firefighters were alive and had made it to the engine room to await help. Who knew they didn't even have the chance to escape; at the moment when they said over the radio that the operation could not continue and the fire was just steps away from them. They knew that with the meager equipment they had, they could not compete with the fire giant. They wanted to get out of the danger zone and return to fight the fire with full hands, but the order was to stay. The writer of the Iran newspaper noted that "all those scenes pass before my eyes like a film, and it feels like I have been thrown back to those 9 nights I was there," writing: A year later, on the night of the anniversary of Plasco, I stand in front of its cold, lifeless walls, and the 16 firefighters etched on the wall are staring at me and those passing by. People still do not know why Plasco surrendered to death like this and why the firefighters were not allowed to escape. The Hamdeli newspaper, in its Sunday issue, pointed out that on Wednesday, January 17, the hand of a 34-year-old man accused of stealing several sheep from villagers in Razavi Khorasan and South Khorasan was cut off in Mashhad Central Prison by guillotine, writing: "Will other criminals whose embezzlement and financial abuses are thousands of times greater than the sheep thief face such severity from the authorities?" This newspaper wrote: "Just a few days ago, a report from the new mayor of Tehran was presented to the city council, which also contained staggering figures of violations. This report should be investigated and examined by judicial authorities. If such a report is fundamentally incorrect, it is natural that the current mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Ali Najafi, should be held accountable, and the other side of the story is that Najafi's report is correct and the violations listed occurred during the presidency of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf in Tehran's municipality. Then it must be seen what decisive action and maximum punishment will be considered for the offenders. Hamdeli wrote: "If it becomes clear that a violation has occurred and public funds have been plundered, the scales of justice should not differentiate between a sheep thief from Khorasan and an official in Tehran's municipality." The Farhikhtegan newspaper, while publishing a photo of Hassan Rouhani visiting the "Golden Quran Ship" unveiled a few days ago in Qom, wrote: "Let us have mercy on the religion of God." This newspaper, posing the question of "why can we not work politically without cost from religion?" wrote: "Even in promoting religion, we work against religion, like the golden ship" and "using 'gold' and a 'glittering' image creates a perception of wastefulness in public opinion, indicating that the builders of this ship have worked against religion instead of promoting it." Farhikhtegan emphasized that "this ship was built and unveiled with the aim of promoting religion, like a beautifully painted canvas, like a calligraphy of hadiths and verses of the Quran, but why does this effort, which took a lot of work, create a negative promotional effect contrary to the intentions of its builders?" It stressed that one of the reasons for the public's negative reaction to the unveiling of this golden Quran ship is that "in the calculations of the designers of this ship, no attention was paid to the social result and meaning of the work." Ten days after Hassan Rouhani instructed the Minister of Interior to prepare and present a report on the protests in the cities within a week, the Shargh newspaper reported that Hossein Zolfaqari, the Deputy for Security and Police at the Ministry of Interior, stated: "We do not want to prepare this report based on our own imagination, but we want to prepare this report based on accurate informational data and grounded in realities." The Deputy Minister of Interior emphasized that "merely stating that external factors and some internal contexts caused these protests is not enough. The issues regarding external factors that harbor animosity towards us and interfere in these protests are obvious, and we should not just settle for these obvious matters, but we must see what damages allow external threats to take advantage of them." According to Shargh, Hossein Zolfaqari also stated: "This report can pave the way for providing practical suggestions and solutions in the country for some issues and damages, because we believe that as long as the face and nature of the issue are not clearly understood, the solution will also be perceived as incorrect. Certainly, the expectation of the people, the stakeholders, and the well-wishers of the system is that a thorough investigation of the dimensions and nature of these protests is conducted and practical and operational solutions are also provided." The Shargh newspaper also reported on its front page that "the extent of rumors and implicit or explicit statements about the role of the Imam of Friday prayers in Mashhad in the beginning of the protests has become so widespread that Ahmad Alamolhoda has been compelled to react and he has written a letter to the Supreme National Security Council," denying his involvement in the street protests in Mashhad, stating: "I was in Sabzevar that day." Shargh reminded that the Supreme National Security Council, which was the recipient of Ahmad Alamolhoda's letter, is the same body that "it has been rumored that it summoned the Imam of Friday prayers in Mashhad." Meanwhile, the Citizen newspaper reported with the headline "The Status of Detainees is on the Agenda," writing: "It has been two weeks since the end of the street protests, but news and discussions about it continue; if in the early days of these protests, most statements from officials and political figures were about the behind-the-scenes of these protests, now for some time, after the situation has calmed down, the detainees and suicides in prison have become the focus of discussion, to the extent that some members of parliament have expressed concern about this, and after 170 representatives called on the heads of the three branches to demand the release of detainees, some of them have practically warned that a tragedy like Kahrizak should not be repeated in this matter." According to this newspaper, "Perhaps due to these concerns, although since the establishment of calm and the subsiding of the wave of protests, many students and other detainees have been released, some members of parliament and also the parliamentary deputy of the president have stated that as much as possible, the review and handling of the situation of detainees will be placed on the agenda." The Khorasan newspaper reported that Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, criticized the efforts of the tenth parliament representatives for the release of detainees from the protests, stating: "I am surprised by some members of parliament who instead of condemning the rioters, are seeking to release these rioters from prison." The Law newspaper has a report about "the side effects of problematic pills," and wrote: "The story of the claim of feeding pills to prisoners in Evin is a news that was first published after the protests by Mahmoud Sadqi, a representative of the people of Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, who tweeted: According to the relatives of one of the detainees who died, he stated during several calls with his family that the authorities forced him and other detainees to take pills that made them feel bad." According to this newspaper, "Immediately after the publication of this news in the country's media and social media, the relevant authorities denied these statements and announced that they would pursue the factors behind the publication and among them, the public relations of the prison organization in a statement denied and rejected this baseless claim, stating that the publication of such matters is an example of spreading lies and disturbing public opinion, and announced that those who raised this great lie and accusation would be pursued legally in the public and revolutionary prosecutor's office in Tehran." The Law newspaper reminded that "this claim was first made by Hamid Baqai," and after he had been detained and imprisoned for a while, he published a statement addressed to Mehdi Khazali, saying: "Although Mr. Khazali is politically our opposite and has spoken against us a lot, from an Islamic and human perspective, I advise him that if he is hospitalized (during detention); he should refrain from taking nameless drugs." This newspaper wrote: "Perhaps at that time, no one paid attention to these statements and no statement was issued, but undoubtedly these individuals were the initiators of the issue of 'problematic pills' in Evin," and although "these individuals were dealt with in other matters, no reaction was shown to them regarding this claim." The Iran newspaper, close to the government, wrote about the deaths of some detainees during protests while in custody, stating: "After recent news about the deaths of some detainees in the country's prisons was published, public sensitivity regarding news in this area increased. For ten days, many speculations about the deaths of these detainees were published. The judiciary announced in one case that the deceased committed suicide in the toilet of Evin prison (Sina Ghanbari). Similarly, regarding the deceased prisoner in Arak (Vahid Heydari), the accusation of this individual was related to drugs. Even some other sources spoke of the addiction of the deceased individuals. However, these kinds of statements could not prevent some whispers about speculations regarding the deaths of these individuals. The Arman newspaper quoted political analyst Sadegh Maleki as rejecting the statements of some government officials regarding the role of other countries in the protests in the cities, stating: "A regime that can save Assad from falling, expel ISIS from Iraq, and thwart the referendum of the region is stronger than that its social base can be provoked by external incitement." This political expert stated: "It should be noted that in some areas there is a disease that may spread to other sectors. Iran, due to its strength, is still standing, but it needs quick and calculated healing," but "some principlists alongside some reformists, who are also carriers of good genes, have used the protests as an opportunity to relieve their anxieties and continue the status quo, thinking that the extinguishing of protests can ensure their peace of mind for the distant future." Kayhan published the reaction of the commander of the Quds Force, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to the protests in the cities, quoting Qassem Soleimani as saying: "When I saw the foolish scene of that ignorant burning the flag of Iran, I felt very sad; I said I wish instead of my flag, they had burned me ten times, because we have sacrificed ten martyrs for the glory of this flag on every peak." At the same time, Abbas Abdi, in a note in the Etemad newspaper titled "A Request from General Soleimani," wrote: "I offer a logical suggestion to General Soleimani. You have influence and power, you have access to many places, which is contrary to the situation of others, including people like us. I suggest you get up and spend an hour of your time meeting this teenager. Apparently, according to the information, the police have quickly identified and arrested him. Take a cameraman with you to film your meeting. I doubt he has come from across the water or has any familial or relational ties to Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. Most likely, his family is not that unfamiliar. He has studied in our education system. He has been educated and indoctrinated by the same media. The writer of Etemad addressed Qassem Soleimani, stating that after talking to the teenager who was arrested for burning the Iranian flag, "first tell the people in which city this incident occurred? Was it in the northern areas of Tehran and, as they say, the affluent who are free of pain or the lovers of Western culture, or from areas that should still be a source of mobilization for defensive actions for the country? Second, what kind of family did he come from? Are his family members Westernized or enemies of the government? Are they non-religious and non-committed? Please tell us what his father did and what his background was? Ask why he did this? Did the education system, the media system, and religious institutions, all of which serve official values, not teach him to respect his country's flag, which is a symbol of the country? If they did not teach him, did he not understand through family, friends, and society that he should respect it? Why did he not know that you or his elders sacrificed your lives for the flag to fly in this meter of soil in Karbala 5? How sure are you that his father or one of his relatives is not among the injured or veterans of that Karbala 5 or other operations? So why should a young person be so indifferent to those values, not only indifferent but also rebellious and confrontational?" The newspaper wrote that a significant portion of those who were present in the war "have turned this past into a tool to justify the current situation and gain rent and silence others. Among these profiteers are those whose souls were unaware of their presence on the front, let alone their bodies," and for this reason, "today's youth cannot relate to this way of dealing with the legacy of the past.