Iranian security forces on Tuesday shot dead at least three protesters, a rights group said, as demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death swelled on the anniversary of a bloody 2019 crackdown.
The protesters were responding to a call to commemorate those slain in the 2019 crackdown, giving new momentum to the demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Amini in mid-September this year, after her arrest for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress code for women.
In Tehran, the din of honking car horns reverberated as protesters blocked a major roundabout at Sanat Square and yelled “freedom, freedom,” verified footage showed.
Photo: AP
People later poured onto the streets of other cities, including Bandar Abbas and Shiraz, where women were seen waving their headscarves above their heads.
As darkness fell, more people emerged onto the streets of the capital, some of them gathering around bonfires and chanting “death to the dictator,” videos posted by the 1500tasvir social media monitor showed.
Other videos posted by the monitor showed altercations with security forces in multiple cities as protests carried on into the night.
“The government forces have directly opened fire in most of the cities where uprisings have taken place, such as Sanandaj, Kamyaran and Kermanshah,” said Hengaw, a rights group based in Norway.
“Three people have been killed so far, two in Sanandaj and one in Kamyaran” by direct fire from government forces, it said, adding that it was working to confirm reports that more protesters were killed.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Iran to immediately release thousands of people arrested for participating in peaceful demonstrations.
“Instead of opening space for dialogue on legitimate grievances, the authorities are responding to unprecedented protests with increasing harshness,” spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland.
“This year is the year of blood, Seyed Ali will be toppled,” a large crowd chanted outside a Tehran metro station, in a verified video, referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As the day began, shops were shuttered in Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar and in other parts of the country, verified online videos showed.
Iranian media outlets said the bazaar’s merchants shut up shop for fear of them being torched, and a police spokesperson later told state television that 11 people had been arrested for “threatening” traders there.
Workers put down their tools and university students boycotted classes in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan, in western Iran, Hengaw said.
In the province’s flashpoint city of Sanandaj, protesters were seen burning tires in a street and chanting anti-government slogans, in other online footage.
Male and female students at Islamic Azad University in the northwestern city of Tabriz chanted “woman, life, freedom” and “man, homeland, prosperity,” in a video published by 1500tasvir.
The protests marked the third anniversary of the start of “Bloody Aban” — or Bloody November — when a surprise overnight fuel price hike sparked bloody street violence that lasted for days.
Amnesty International said that at least 304 people were killed during the protests three years ago, but a tribunal in London this year by various rights groups said expert evidence suggested the toll was likely far more, possibly as high as 1,515.
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