In a street in Tehran, a sign shows Qasem Soleimani and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, January 4, 2019 (illustration image). – MORTEZA NIKOUBAZL / SIPA
Iranian police dispersed students on Saturday who chanted at Tehran “destructive” and “radical” slogans at a rally in memory of the victims on board the
Ukrainian Boeing shot down Wednesday “by mistake” by Iran, according to the Iranian news agency Fars.
According to journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on site, several hundred students gathered in the early evening in response to an invitation to honor the victims of this disaster which left 176 dead, mostly Iranians and Canadians, including binationals. The rally at the prestigious Amir Kabir University in Tehran turned into a manifestation of anger. The crowd launched slogans denouncing “the liars” and demanding prosecution of those responsible for the drama and those who, according to the demonstrators, tried to cover it up.
Students allegedly tore up a banner with the image of Soleimani
TheIran admitted on Saturday that it had shot down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 with a missile shortly after taking off from Tehran when it had previously firmly denied the hypothesis of a missile launch, however
mentioned by Wednesday by Canada.
According to Fars, close to the ultra-conservatives, the angry students tore up one of the many posters in honor of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed on January 3 in an American drone attack in Baghdad. For the Islamic Republic of Iran, this head of the Quds Force, responsible for the external operations of the Revolutionary Guards (the Iranian ideological army), appears to be a “living martyr” and a hero. The Fars agency published several photos of the rally and another showing a torn banner with the image of a smiling Soleimani. Police “dispersed” the students when they left university and began to “block the street and create a traffic jam,” said Fars.
Extremely rare, state television made mention of this demonstration on the air, and noted that the students had chanted “anti-diet slogans”. A video that could not be authenticated circulated on Saturday evening on social networks of what could be the police firing tear gas at the demonstrators. The video shows in particular a man getting up after being apparently hit by a projectile in the leg.
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