Iranian security escalates against protesters – Details
Iran’s security forces have stepped up their crackdown in the face of unrelenting protests after nearly four weeks, using live bullets, tear gas, threats and arrests.
Yesterday, at least three demonstrators were shot dead in the cities of Sanandaj and Kermanshah by Iranian security forces in the west of the country, following the renewal of anti-regime protests in several cities.
“At least three citizens in Sanandaj and Kermanshah were killed during anti-government protests on Wednesday evening by direct fire from Iranian security forces,” the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said.
The Kurdish network reported that two young men were killed by security forces in the town of Dardarij in Kermanshah province.
A third person was shot dead by riot police in the Nasser neighborhood during protests in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province in western Iran, Telegram channel reported.
The latest deaths bring to 204 the number of people killed in Iran during the country’s ongoing protests for the fourth consecutive week.
Despite heavy security, protests continued in the streets, with demonstrators protecting themselves from security forces by setting fires and blocking roads.
In conjunction with the calls for protest, the Iranian authorities have cut off the Internet access to mobile phones.
NetBlocks, the global internet freedom watchdog, has reported widespread disruption of internet access in Iran since yesterday morning, coinciding with a call for nationwide protests.
Merchants and vendors in some cities of Kurdistan province went on strike, while shops closed in a number of cities in West Azerbaijan and Kermanshah provinces, Iran International reported.
“Despite the threat to the Union Room and security institutions, shop owners in Sanandaj, Mahabad, Bukan, Saqqez and Baneh closed their shops yesterday.”
For the first time, merchants in the city of Sarpol-e Zahab in Kermanshah province joined the general strike.
A witness reported that protesters on Palestine and Laleh Zar streets in Tehran chanted: “The mullahs must leave Iran.”
In Tehran, plainclothes forces violently arrested demonstrators, and videos showed Iranian security agents using tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital’s Argentinian district.
Security forces also fired tear gas at a gathering of lawyers in front of the Bar Association building in the Iranian capital Tehran, chanting the slogan: “Women… Life… Freedom.”
Minutes after the rally, security officers fired tear gas at protesters in front of the bar.
The Teachers Coordination Council of Iran reported the arrest of a school director in the city of Karaj for refusing to hand over the school’s camera pictures to security officers and for removing their contents before the arrival of intelligence agents. The Council said that security forces arrested Ms. Aqab Nashin in in front of schoolgirls.
The regime continued to attack the protests, describing them as the result of a “foreign conspiracy”, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the ongoing uprising against the Islamic Republic’s regime as “street riots, instigated by the enemy”.
In a meeting with members of the Expediency Council, he said the protests were not “spontaneous and internal”, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The Representative of Dashti and Tajikistan in the Iranian Parliament, Gholam Hoseyn Laghari, defended the blocking of social networks, saying: “I believe that a good job was done, and these networks should have been controlled. The incidents, the riots, and the discord that took place made the blocking process happen faster.”
Mohammad Hassan Asfari, another member of the Iranian Parliament, also defended the cut of internet access in Iran, saying: “As I heard, the riots on Saturday, October 8 were caused by 5 million text messages sent to some people.”
“We need to provide the infrastructure for this issue in the country, so that we don’t see the misuse of cyberspace for subversive movements,” he said.
Meanwhile, after the Minister of Education’s statements about the students’ uprising against the Iranian regime; The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Unions has expressed concern over the conditions of students “arrested” in the country, calling on the regime to end the “militarization” of cities and the policy of intimidation and detention of young students.
Iran has been witnessing major protests for more than four weeks, and they have been expanding every day throughout the country, in the wake of the killing of a security engineer by the Guidance Police. Observers confirmed that the demonstrations and protests have turned into a revolution that Iran has never seen.
