Several Policemen Wounded by Rioters in Tehran Province

In an interview with FNA, he explained that he was sent on the mission after his commanders heard that a number of rioters with firearms were present among the protesting people.

“I heard the sound of firing and then felt a burning in my foot and I fell on the ground,” Mojtaba said.

On Saturday morning when the rioters blocked a highway in Tehran, several policemen were sent to the scene to open the way for people and ambulances on emergency missions.

One of the rioters who was driving a Xantia passenger car ran over a police officer and fled the scene. People helped the wounded officer by picking him up to the hospital.

In another incident in Robat Karim district in Tehran city, Jalil, 34, a police commander was attacked by the rioters and one of his hands is numb now after being severely beaten. The rioters also attacked him with knife and injured different parts of his body, including his lungs.

“The rioters have squished the cartilages of his hand in a way that he will never be able to use it,” Jalil’s wife said while crying.

A number of other police forces, mostly between 20 to 22, have also been wounded by the rioters and hospitalized.

Riots by a small number who have taken advantage of legitimate public protests against the government’s gas price hike plan in Iran are directed at sowing chaos through targeted attacks on public and private properties, forcing law enforcement to step in to stop saboteurs.

Early estimates of an intelligence body showed that a sum of nearly 87,000 protesters and rioters have taken part in protest rallies and gatherings since Friday night, mostly (over 93%) men. A large number of protesters have only been present in the gathering centers and avoided joining the rioters in sabotage attacks on public and private properties.

“The identical methods of the main core of violent rioters discloses that they are fully trained individuals who have been prepared and looking forward for the situation to rise, unlike most people who have been taken off guard by the sudden hike in gas price,” the report said.

The report shows that gatherings have been comprised of 50 to 1,500 people held in 100 regions of the country out of a number of 1,080 major towns and cities. The report says violent raids and damage inflicted on properties has been larger than what happened in February 2018 unrests.

Most cases of damage to properties has happened in Khuzestan, Tehran, Fars and Kerman provinces. The report says most casualties have resulted from armed outlaws’ attacks on oil storage and military centers, adding that a number of police and popular forces have been martyred in these attacks.

Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested across the country while over 100 banks and 57 big stores have been set on fire or plundered in just one province.

The Iranian intelligence ministry announced in a statement on Sunday that it had identified several rioters who misused the recent protest rallies against the gasoline price hikes to destroy public and private properties.

“The main culprits behind the riots in the past two days have been identified and proper measures are being adopted and the honorable nation will be informed about its result later,” the statement said.

It added that the intelligence ministry will decisively confront those who foment insecurity and disrupt tranquility of people.

“Certainly, the enemies who have pinned hope on these riots will have no achievements but shame and embarrassment like the past,” the statement underlined.

In relevant remarks on Sunday, Spokesman of Law Enforcement Police Brigadier General Ahmad Nourian announced that the police forces will not allow insecurity and disruption of the general order during the protest rallies against the gasoline rationing.

“The Law Enforcement Police will act upon its natural and legal duty and will not compromise those who disrupt the order and security and will identify and confront the ringleaders and their field agents,” General Nourian said on Sunday.

He referred to the Friday and Saturday rallies to protest at the hike in prices and rationing of gasoline in Iran that in some cases turned violent, and said the police will act upon its responsibilities to restore tranquility and security based on people’s demands.