The Sanctions Committee

Probably one of the more interesting aspects of Iran’s not so far history...We should travel back almost a century and imagine the world of the First World War to understand the environment in which our article unfolds… In those days, Iran as a nation and country was struggling to survive the last stages of a dying feudal hierarchy based on an absolute monarchy system. The Monarchy itself, was trying to survive the times with all the revolts and revolutions, probably only surviving because of the foreign support it was receiving. (very much like the Monarchies of the southern Persian gulf tribal states)........This objective was being achieved through constant yielding and accepting too many wishes and granting too much influence to the two super powers of the time, Russia and Britain, and all that regardless of Iran's national interests.

The Iranian shortcomings in dealing with these super powers and the granting of so much privilege to them surpassed all levels of tolerance amongst largely patriotic elite of Iran’s society… Iran’s population then, was no more than 10 to 12 Million at the time and scarcely dispersed in a space as large as Germany +Spain +France and all known small countries in between put together… So, not much effort was needed to influence an absolute monarch to sign a decree and losing the Harrat province to the British (today part of Afghanistan)…. or prior to that, concessions in business transactions, or a few decades before that losing the Azerbaijan and Georgian provinces to the Russians…

 

The list of such grievances was long, some larger and some smaller in nature but it was bottling up and constantly talked about. It was in such a politically dark time, that three individuals in a late summer evening of 1912 decided to put a stop to such betrayals…

1 Mr. Monshizadeh (General Secretary).

2 Mr. Abol’fathzadeh (Executive)

3 Mr. Mashkut-ol-Mamalek (Legislative)

 

These three Gentlemen founded perhaps the first Terrorist unit of Iran’s Modern time and called it the “Sanctions Committee”... Their objective was first and foremost the elimination of what they considered and together decided to be indigenous anti-social and anti Iranian officials, who acted more in accordance with foreign interests as their own people… It is important to emphasize that these people were Nationalists and not anarchists …according to their Manifestos, we can clearly distinguish their extreme nationalistic views and that their endurance of daily humiliations at the hands of the British and Russian super powers having reached its limits... so they decided to eliminate collaborators and sell outs.

Hence an assassin was hired with the name of Mr. Karim Davatgar (above photo,taken on another occasion for a different reason)

First victim was a Mr. Mirza Esmail –Khan, he was the head of Tehran’s Granary and he was to have sold grains to the foreign institutions/forces rather that distributing it according to his duties, thus causing shortages that caused deaths and unexcused starvation amongst poorer citizens of Tehran.… He was assassinated sitting in his Droshke near Tehran’s Railway station around between 4 and 5 PM… as he left his work.

Thereupon, the assassin started antagonizing and pressuring the Committee for more money, which caused a delay in the committee’s work, as a result of which Mr. Davatgar (the assassin) was eliminated… Which itself was the second operation of the Sanctions Committee.

The third victim was a publisher, his name was Mr.Hamid Matin-ol-Saltane.. His paper was called “New Age”, and had a very clear tendency in paving and justifying Russian policies in Iran… He was

assassinated 8.30 PM. May 22nd 1917 in his office from an unknown assailant that pretended to have to deliver important documents to him.

Fourth victim was a Mr. Mohsen Mojtahed, he was the son in law of Ayatollah Behbahani, he was assassinated at 10:30 AM on June 7^th 1917 as he was entering his house.

  

Fifth Victim was a Mr. Montakhab-ol-Doleh (not sure about the exact name..sounds more like a title..) but he was the Treasury Minister (or deputy).. He was assassinated on the 8^th of June 1917 ( one day after the fourth hit job).

After that there was suddenly a surge in violence and it is “now” known that there were discrepancies amongst the leadership of the committee, so one of them had gone rouge. This triggered a killing spree….Amongst the victims was a Major Ahmad-Khan, another was Mr. Ahmad Saffa and a Mr. Sardar Rashid… All for different reasons.

The committee used to publish announcements in form of a night paper, explaining who it was and why an operation took place (after each hit job).... that way, they claimed legitimacy and absolution...However the last uncoordinated actions that followed led to them being arrested and their organization abolished for good... the details of which needs another article at some other point in time.

For information's sake...This was certainly not the only dodgy organization of its sort in Iran’s history, apart from the famous assassins of Alamut .. there was for instance the “SoMKA” organization ,with almost a same agenda, except it was aimed at the occupying allied forces of the WW2 in Iran.. mainly the British... which is by itself, moreso a different story. (SoMKA stood for National Socialist party of Iranian labors ).