Raisi Government’s Tightrope Walk in the Serial Poisoning Case Part Three

Raisi’s Government’s Tightrope Walking in the Serial Poisoning Case – Part Three

Raisi’s Government’s Tightrope Walking in the Serial Poisoning Case. According to Iran Gate, the statement from the Ministry of Intelligence of Ebrahim Raisi’s government regarding the case of poisoning schoolgirls was released while the finger of blame is increasingly pointing towards Shiite fundamentalist groups. The government has attempted in this statement to completely deny the intentionality of these incidents, blaming everything on the students and reducing it to the mischief of a few teenagers.

According to the statement released by the Ministry of Intelligence of the thirteenth government regarding the serial poisoning of schoolgirls, no group or movement was responsible for this incident. Raisi’s government claims that everything was orchestrated by the students themselves, with mischief and skipping school being their main motivations. The Ministry of Intelligence claims that the poisonings and visits to medical centers showed no signs of poisoning and were all cases of malingering.

In the previous two parts of this case, Iran Gate tried to familiarize the audience with the movement suspected of poisoning teenage girls. In the third and final part of this case, it also identifies the signs and traces of this fundamentalist movement in this criminal act. Although the Ministry of Intelligence tried to close the case by releasing a statement on April 28, 2023, it seems that the matter is far more complex than can be forgotten with a single statement about criminal acts.

What Eyewitnesses Say

According to reports published in official and international media, many of the victims of these incidents have shared their observations of the day of the attack with the media. A common point found in almost all these statements is the occurrence of an explosion or poisoning of school drinking water tanks by unknown individuals who entered the school in disguise and sometimes by force.

Although the police have announced that they reviewed images related to the entry and exit of all the mentioned schools and observed no abnormal entry, many teachers have also confirmed the students’ claims about the entry of unknown individuals into the school and have validated the victims’ claims.

Reversed Imitation

As mentioned in the previous part, such criminal actions against schoolgirls have occurred in other countries as well. The most recent example of such terrorist attacks was organized in 2015 in areas including Nimroz, Daikundi, Herat, and Badakhshan in Afghanistan. When the roots of these attacks are examined, it is found that the Taliban undertook these actions in response to the enactment of supportive laws for women’s rights in the country. Actions that in some areas, including southwest Afghanistan, led to the closure of some girls’ schools at the secondary level for a relatively long time.

However, the strange point is that in the statement on April 28, the Ministry of Intelligence described the students’ malingering of poisoning as historically precedented and even listed examples for this claim. The statement refers to cases like 1965 in England, 2011 in the USA, 1990 in Kosovo, 2006 in Portugal, 2007 in Brazil, and 2018 in the UAE.

Investigations conducted in this area show that the actions claimed by the Ministry of Intelligence of Raisi’s government regarding the coordination of students to feign poisoning on the announced dates in the mentioned countries are merely claims, and there is no evidence of such actions by students. In fact, the Ministry of Intelligence has tried to create false similarities to divert public attention, which automatically focuses on similar criminal acts in Afghanistan.

Fundamentalists as the Only Suspect

Considering the available evidence, it can be said that the claims made in the statement by the Ministry of Intelligence of Raisi’s government do not have roots in reality, and the theory of students malingering cannot stand on its own. Now, if the subject of examining the historical and tangible evidence of the victims is revisited, it can be clearly understood that the only movement present as the suspect is the Shiite fundamentalists, which, according to statements from religious authorities in the provinces of Qom and Isfahan, have taken root.

Historical and geographical similarities also confirm the idea that Hazara-oriented movements or Shiite extremists are the main suspects in this case. Historically, one can point to periods when Sayyed Hassan Roshdieh established the first modern schools in Tabriz, and a group of fanatic and extremist religious movements attacked these schools to prevent the education of girls and, in some cases, even boys.

The coincidence of these events with the movement known as ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ also adds to the reason and can explain why such a reaction from religious fundamentalists in Iran is occurring at this particular time. Of course, the rise of a government that represents part of this movement has also paved the way for the emergence of such activities. Some news sources have even claimed that some of the toxic gases used in these attacks have strangely and suddenly become scarce in the domestic market.

On the other hand, some of these chemical compounds are generally not available to the public and are only accessible to military and law enforcement forces. For this reason, some experts believe that the hardline conservative government not only has not and will not prevent such actions but may also pave the way for the activities of extremist groups by ignoring such movements.

Therefore, it may be said that the statement by the Ministry of Intelligence will not only not close the case but has intensified the public’s suspicion of the government. A suspicion that has increased following the government’s and law enforcement’s failure to address any individuals in this case and has reminded the public of incidents like the acid attacks in Isfahan, one of the centers of growth and expansion of Shiite extremist movements in Iran.

A series of articles related to this topic have been written in Iran Gate, which are available to you through the links below.

• Who is Responsible for the Poisoning of Students? – Part One
• Iran’s Taliban Behind the Poisoning of Girls – Part Two
• Raisi’s Government’s Tightrope Walking in the Serial Poisoning Case – Part Three. You are currently reading this section.