In July 2014, the commander of Esfahan Law Enforcement Forces, Hassan Karami, was chosen as the head of the Special Unit, which was one of the main forces involved in suppressing Green Movement followers during the 2009 post-election unrest.
Karami said their equipment has been updated since 2009. “At the time of the sedition of 2009, we did not have secure vehicles that could enter the crowd without being damaged. There was always the possibility of damage to our personnel,” he said. ”Now, however, we are equipped with secure vehicles when we need to control the riots.”
Karami also mentioned that they now have equipment including tear gas, laughing gas and electronic loud noises at their disposal. “Previously, we had a type of water spray that was called ‘heavy’ water spray. Now, however, we have five different types of water sprays, 18 tons, 5 tons and 2 tons, as well as four-wheeled engines. We have a variety of water sprays and each of them can be used depending on the situation.”
Dealing with riots, anti-terrorist activities and rescuing hostages are among the most important duties of the Special Unit. In most countries in the world, these forces have expanded and Tehran alone has four major units. The popular belief, however, is that the Special Unit plays the major role in suppressing riots.
Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces, announced in February 2013 that the Special Unit has 60,000 members and, “They are very flexible and have the ability to move from location to location. They arrive at the location of threat with complete knowledge about the situation.”
From the early hours of Saturday, June 13, 2009, with the emergence of scattered demonstrations in Tehran, the Law Enforcement Forces started utilizing their forces in various police stations to stop the unrest. However, the role that the Special Unit played, as the most skilled unit of the Law Enforcement Forces, became public at midnight, June 15, 2009.
On June 14, 2009, after the results of the presidential elections were announced, students protesting the results gathered around the dormitories in the Tehran University complex. A few hours later, the Special Unit took over the dormitory area.
In a video clip of this incident, the conflict started behind the fences and before the Special Unit personnel entered the dormitory areas. The students were throwing stones from the rooftops and the members of the Special Unit also started to throw stones and shoot tear gas at the students. Around 2 a.m., members of the Special Unit managed to enter the dormitory area.
A member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (Jebheye Mosharekate), a major Reformist faction which was disbanded five years ago, told Al-Monitor, “The members of the Special Unit of the police, who were there to protect innocent civilians, were being so violent that paramilitary forces such as the Basij and Ansar-e-Hezbollah, who are famous for their brutality, were screaming at them not to beat the students anymore.”
