Martial Law Declared Following Student and Public Protests in Zahedan

Martial law has been declared following protests by students and the people of Sistan and Baluchestan in Zahedan. The roaring waves of the student movement have engulfed all of Iran like a devastating storm against the sick and fragile body of the medieval regime of ignorance, corruption, and despotism. This monumental wave of student and public unrest, which stretches from Chabahar to Tabriz and from Mashhad to Sanandaj, is set to sink the rotting and rudderless ship of the Islamic Republic deep into the ocean of a nation's fury. In recent months, most leaders of the student movement at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan and the Islamic Azad University of Baluchestan have either been arrested and imprisoned or forced into educational exile (mandatory transfer to universities in remote areas of Iran). Given the military-security situation imposed on Baluchestan over the past twenty-four years and the repression, imprisonment, and exile of student leaders in Baluchestan, the clerical regime did not expect any reaction from the proud and fighting students of Baluchestan. However, this surging wave of protest and the student movement of the nation's children passed through the Helmand River and the heart of Zahedan, reaching the shores of Chabahar as well. Over the past three nights, students from the University of Sistan and Baluchestan in various cities of the province, particularly in Zahedan and Zabol, joined this overwhelming wave and raised their voices of protest to the supporters of the despised regime of the Islamic Republic. Late Sunday and Monday night, many people from Zahedan and Zabol joined the protesting students and shouted against the regime. Regime agents responded with tear gas and live ammunition against the students and ordinary Baluch and Sistani people. About twenty to thirty students and citizens were arrested by the regime's security forces, and some of their lives are in danger. On the morning of Tuesday, July 3, martial law was effectively declared in Zahedan (with a curfew from 10 PM to 4 AM). According to reports from Zahedan, from 8 PM on Tuesday, July 3, army and Revolutionary Guard forces were deployed in southern Zahedan, where the University of Sistan and Baluchestan and the Islamic Azad University of Sistan and Baluchestan are located. Despite the martial law and brutal repression, around one hundred and fifty students protested in the courtyard of the engineering dormitory of the University of Sistan and Baluchestan late Tuesday and early Wednesday. However, immediately after the student gathering began, over four hundred members of the security forces and Revolutionary Guards entered the university compound and surrounded the protesters. With the mediation of several university professors, the students returned to their dormitories, and the regime's agents also left the dormitory area. University officials in Baluchestan have requested all students to leave their dormitories by Friday, July 13, considering the end of the academic year. They also announced that only students who provide a written commitment and letter of remorse for not attending exams will be allowed to retake their exams.