Many arrested in anti-government protest in Sanandaj

The government-organized procession marking the twentieth anniversary of the mullahs' taking power in the city of Sanandaj (capital of the western province of Iranian Kurdistan), was turned into an extensive anti-regime demonstration, reports from Iran say.

In the course of this protest which began at 10:00 am, from the city's Inqelab (Revolution) Square, the city's young people began to march, chanting "death to Khamenei, death to Khatami, free all political prisoners." Many people joined the march along the way and the crowd swelled to several thousand.

Terrified of the spread of the demonstration, local authorities dispatched contingents of the State Security Force and the Revolutionary Guards Corps to the area.

The protesters, however, clashed with them. A number of them were injured and many were arrested and transferred to the local Intelligence Department.

Mullahs' Guidance Minister, who had traveled to Sanandaj to make a speech on the occasion of February 11, canceled his address out of fear of the public's negative reaction.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 12, 1999

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