The Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence announced in a statement on Saturday, 3 October 2026, that it had arrested 31 people in Sirjan county in Kerman province. The ministry claims that those arrested were members of four organised networks which, it says, had links to the United States and Israel and were preparing to create unrest across the country.
According to Mehr News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Propagation Organisation, the Ministry of Intelligence claims that these networks operated under names designed to appeal to teenagers and young people, had prepared Molotov cocktails and were building devices to disable the city's surveillance cameras. The statement calls those arrested enemy mercenaries, but no evidence, list of seized items or specific formal charges have been published, and the date of the arrests has not been disclosed either.
Link to the January uprising
According to Xinhua news agency, the Ministry of Intelligence has also accused those arrested of playing a part, during the January 2026 uprising in Sirjan, in setting fire to the governorate building, wrecking banks and government institutions, destroying surveillance cameras and attacking a police station to obtain weapons. None of these claims has been confirmed by any independent source.
Since the January uprising, the Islamic Republic has repeatedly arrested and tried protesters on charges such as spying for the United States and Israel and acting against national security. Human rights organisations say many of these cases were built on forced confessions in hasty trials without access to an independent lawyer, and that at least several protesters detained during the uprising have been executed.
The news comes as the Islamic Republic faces war, a US naval blockade and an unprecedented collapse in the value of the rial, and as the security agencies have repeatedly announced in recent weeks the discovery of networks linked to the United States and Israel.
Without presenting any evidence, the Ministry of Intelligence has accused the 31 detainees in Sirjan of links to the United States and Israel and of a role in the January uprising.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first.