Iranian Police detained 137 people in country’s NW over calls for unrest

Tehran: Iranian Police detained 137 people who called on the country’s citizens to stage protests against the Iranian government, the commander of the law enforcement forces in the northwestern Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, Rahim Jahanbakhsh, said on Saturday.
“Currently, 137 people have been found on social networks calling on the population to riot in the province of West Azerbaijan,” Jahanbakhsh was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.
He also added that 52 Instagram accounts (owned by Meta, designated in Russia as an extremist organisation) were blocked and permanently deleted. The news agency noted that only 14 of the 137 detainees were arrested and handed over to the country’s judicial authorities.
At the same time, the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that they had neutralized in the province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad a terrorist network of 15 people who intended to carry out a series of terrorist attacks using improvised explosive devices, Tasnim reported.
Iran’s security and law enforcement forces have been on alert in recent days ahead of the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in custody of Iran’s controversial morality police in Tehran on September 16 last year after being detained for not wearing a proper head covering. The 22-year-old’s death sparked months of mass protests across Iran.
UNI/SPUTNIK