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More Riot Against Provincial Division Occurs in Northeastern Iran
A 300-strong group of young demonstrators on Friday went to streets in Iran's northeastern city of Qaen to protest against the planned division of northeastern Khorassan Province following a similar riot in the city of Sabzevar a day earlier.
The demonstrators, aged between 12 and 25, marched towards the Governor's Office and the City Council headquarters, but were dispersed by the police, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"We are angry at the government decision which would include Qaen in the Southern Province in a new division of Khorassan Province," the protestors said, adding that they plan to go on a wildcat strike Saturday to voice their opposition to the split plan.
On Thursday, a young boy was killed and 37 others injured in Sabzevar when a protest against the government's provincial division plan was later turned into a riot and police opened fire on the protestors.
The IRNA quoted an official as saying that 154 rioters have been arrested, of whom 34 have been sent to jail while the rest are held in detention for "disrupting the social order.
An "absolute" calm has restored to the city as armed police are patrolling streets to avoid any flare of violence, IRNA said.
Residents of Sabzevar, a cultural and agricultural city with a population of about 500,000, were expecting their city to be announced as one of the capitals of the three would-be provinces.
The Iranian government approved a plan on Sunday to divide the present Khorassan Province into three, namely central, southern and northern provinces, with Mashhad, Birjand and Bojnourd being the capitals of the three would-be provinces, respectively.
But the decision aimed at dealing with poverty in the remote and drug-infested province, which borders Afghanistan, must be examined and approved by the reform-majority parliament.
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