Twenty-Four Days and Counting: Iran Protests See Ongoing Killings and Threats

As widespread anti-government protests entered their twenty-fourth day, high schools across Iran faced chaotic scenes following security forces' crackdown against protesting students on Monday, October 11.

Fierce clashes between riot police and protesters in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj were met with international condemnation after the city woke to the sounds of explosions and heavy gunfire. Footage from Sanandaj showed riot police firing live ammunition at unarmed protesters in several parts of the city. 

Internet access was severely restricted in almost every town in Kurdistan province, disrupting the flow of information and communication. Residents reported the heavy presence of security forces on the streets of Kurdish towns.

Security forces stormed the houses of the protesting citizens on Monday morning, breaking the windows and causing terror in a residential neighborhood on Kurdistan Boulevard in Saqqez city. They have arrested young men from at least five households.

In another neighbourhood near Kurdistan Boulevard, security forces raided the house of a young woman who had been injured during the previous night's protests in Saqqez, and violently arrested her. Eyewitnesses said that the security agents used extreme violence against the young woman despite her injury, dragging her to the ground before taking her away.

Reports from Kurdish towns also indicate that government forces shot and killed a 22-year-old man named Aryan Moridi in Salas Babajani.

Meanwhile, news has come from the Saqqez Central Prison that the injured inmates are being treated with the help of medical personnel working in health centers outside the prison. The situation at Saqqez Central Prison is concerning in terms of the number of detainees, the health situation and the number of injured people who need urgent medical help.

Government forces have also arrested two teachers' rights activists from Marivan named Eskandar Lutfi and Masoud Nikkhah. They have reportedly been moved to Evin Prison in the capital. At least 200 people arrested in Saqqez in recent days have been moved to Hamedan Central Prison. Amnesty International raised concerns over the situation of arrested protesters and the police force’s use of live ammunition. Government authorities sent reinforcements to Kurdish towns to suppress the protesters.

In recent days schoolchildren have become the latest group to join the protests, leaving schools in the Kurdish town of Dehgolan and marching through the streets of the city. The security forces’ response has been violent, with live ammunition being fired. Police have arrested at least one schoolchild who was later identified as Soran Mubarak, 17. Police have taken him to an unknown location and there are concerns about his welfare.

IranWire can also report that a 12-year-old child was blinded after being hit by security forces in Sanandaj.

More than 266 religious scholars and Friday Prayer Imams from western Kurdish towns voiced their support for the protesters on Monday. They have also condemned the massacre in eastern Zahedan city where security forces killed more than 85 people. 

"We have witnessed the eruption of Iranians' anger and suffering over the past few days. This has been caused by decades of the government ignoring and not listening to their religious, humanitarian and legal demands," the group said in a statement.

The statement also mentioned the twenty-eighth article of the Iranian constitution regarding the right to assembly and demonstration. It said: "But now, under the pretext of rioting, people have been prevented from gathering to the extent that within a few minutes, more than 80 Sunni Baloch worshipers were killed. The mosque of Friday prayer in Zahedan city was mercilessly massacred and hundreds of people were injured."

Meanwhile, security forces have intensified a crackdown against families of dead protesters. Atash Shakarami, the aunt of Nika Shakarami, who was arrested by the security forces at the same time as her niece's body was kidnapped by the government forces and buried in secret, announced her release from custody in a tweet: "I am alive. I am physically healthy and at home,” she said.

Atash and her brother were forced to give a televised interview last week, during which she said: "I know you were worried about me too. If I tell you I’m fine, I am insulting my suffering and what I’ve been through. I'm not fine. I will not be fine.”

Nasrin Shakarami, Nika’s mother, once again rejected the state media’s account of her daughter's death. The family’s lawyer has also announced that they are suing anyone involved in Nika’s death.

Sources told IranWire that the family of Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody sparked the new wave of anti-government protests, is facing heavy pressure and surveillance by security forces.

“Mahsa’s family have received multiple death threats,” the source told IranWire.

In another major development on the twenty-fourth day of the protests, workers brought oil production to a standstill in a series of strikes at several sites across Iran on Monday.

The Council of Oil Contract Workers announced that more than 4,000 workers were striking, affecting sites on the Persian Gulf coast including the Bushehr, Borzovieh, Hemgan and Asaluyeh petrochemical refineries. The second phase of Abadan refinery and several other companies were also affected by the strike.

Workers from Asaluyeh petrochemical sites in southern Bushehr city refused to return to work, made makeshift defences with lines of rocks and rubble, and torched objects on the streets to prevent riot forces from reaching the scene.

In videos emerging from Bushehr, angry workers could be heard chanting "Death to the Dictator," “Death to Khamenei!” and “This year is the year of blood, Seyyed Ali Khamenei is done!”

The refinery and associated petrochemical industries at Asaluyeh are considered one of the most important economic infrastructures in Iran and a main source of revenue for the government. But the Council of Oil Contract Workers warned the government last week that they would go on strike if security forces continued suppressing protests.

More workers announced on Monday evening that they would strike in the coming days.