By Nazanin Kamdar

January 8, 2010

Source:

Even though more than a week has passed since the bloody Ashura in Tehran, the city has still not found its normalcy and the presence of mobile patrol units has increased many fold in the capital. These patrols are in addition to the intelligence-security groups that have been plying the thoroughfares of Tehran and impose themselves on the environs.

There is also the motor-bike plainclothesmen in the form of Basij para-military forces who roam the streets of the capital in groups of 25 to 50 people. They strive to make their presence well known and instill fear in the population, reminding them who is really in charge of events.

Another sign of this presence is the positioning of anti-riot special forces armed with batons around the city’s universities. During some rush hours, they retreat to their bases.

A Rooz Online reporter writes that since mid last week when the government staged a demonstration of its supporters, special inspection units have been set up on pavements. These are now in unusually large numbers and they stop and inspect vehicles passing through, particularly those with young drivers. Inspection stops are set up towards the late hours of the night and they are under the command of plainclothes Basij militia armed with automatic weapons.

According to eye witness accounts, these motor-bike patrols appear around 10 pm every night, as Tehran residents begin their Allaho Akbar, Death to the Dictator and Death to Khamenei chants from roof tops, which in some neighborhoods are as intense as when they initially began several weeks ago.

Rooz Online reporters also report that the municipality of this mega city is busier than usual cleaning up the anti establishment graffiti.

A source in the municipality told Rooz, “Municipality employees are tired of cleaning up the walls. They do not have enough time to do their job because in addition to the walls, they also have to clean the graffiti written on overpasses, traffic signs, and campaign banners. This is why they have been instructed to first and foremost clean only that graffiti that is directly related to the leader of the Islamic regime.” This source further said, “The complaints that these employees make is that they are redoing this cleaning up because the same walls and signs get written with graffiti soon after they are cleaned.”

In another related development, Iranian currency bank notes too have become the object of anti-government and anti-regime writings. Iran’s Central Bank issued a stern warning in this regard threatening not to accept bank notes that carried such comments, which has led to the disruption of the free exchange of bank notes.

Another relatively unusual development in Tehran is the presence of groups of people who are the relatives of detainees. They cluster around Eshratabad garrison, Evin prison and some police stations in Tehran. These relatives are now more present because of the harsh and threatening comments that have been recently made over the fate of protestors, specifically that they would be treated as Mohareb, which in Islam means at war with God, which is punishable by death. Just last week Mohseni Ejhei declared that a number of individuals who had participated in the Ashura demonstrations would be executed shortly, remarks that have heightened the concerns of city dwellers.