A woman walks past a building that was previously targeted by an Israeli strike, in Tehran, on June 25, 2025. Archive photo by Atta Kenare/AFP
11 people belonging to the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), a group considered "terrorist" by Iran, were arrested before carrying out acts of sabotage, state television reported Saturday.
This announcement comes after a large protest movement in Iran that left several thousand dead in January.
Since its creation in 2004, PJAK, a dissident branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has been involved in operations against Iranian armed forces.
The 11 people arrested in the west of the country were "in direct contact with elements of PJAK, sought to carry out sabotage actions and disrupt public security," the Fars news agency said.
"They were identified and arrested before they could act," the agency added, quoting Mohsen Karimi, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for western Iran.
PJAK is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey and the United States.
The Iranian government claims that the vast majority of victims of the January "riots" were security forces or bystanders killed by "terrorists" working for Israel or the United States, its enemies.
Foreign-based NGOs, however, accuse security forces of deliberately targeting protesters.
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