Khomeini’s Nastiest Militia

 Their ostensible job was to defend the Islamic Revolution against counter­revolutionaries and remnants of the Shah’s regime. But Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was killing two birds with one stone: he established the Basij militia under the IRGC as a volunteer force for poor young men and even boys under 18, from rural and tribal backgrounds,who would receive a stipend, their education sponsored by the state along with preferential admission. They would be ideologically trained to act like the IRGC advance guard or moral police the streets. Initially though, Khomeini had needed a supple­mentary outfit against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. What he created was a mon­ster.

As the auxiliary force that suppresses anti-regime protests, the Basij was rarely bound by even the legal standards of the Islamic Republic. It was frequently ac­cused of torture, rape, random sexual violence directed at women, and not merely protesters. Since 2009, it has killed at will. The targeted killing of Gholamreza Soleimani, the Basij com­mander, on March 17 was a big blow not just to the militia but the regime itself. But it will hardly neutralise the Basij or change its MO.