At least 82 people have been killed since Friday in the repression of demonstrations which broke out in Zahedan, in the south-east of Iran, said Thursday, October 6 the NGO Amnesty International. “Iranian security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people, including children, and injured hundreds more after opening fire with live ammunition and firing lead pellets and tear gas at protesters, bystanders and of the faithful” during the demonstrations of September 30 in this city of the province of Sistan-Balochistan, according to the organization. Since then, says Amnesty, “sixteen other people were killed in separate incidents in Zahedan as part of the continued crackdown on these protests”.
For their part, the Iranian media reported a final official report evoking twenty people killed on Friday, including six members of the police.
According to the NGO Iran Human Rights, the protests were sparked by accusations that a police chief in the port city of Chabahar, also located in the province of Sistan-Balochistan, allegedly raped a 15-year-old minority girl. Baloch Sunni.
“Elements collected from activists, families of victims, eyewitnesses and images and videos of the demonstrations suggest that the true death toll in Zahedan is likely to be higher”continues Amnesty Internationalwho adds that“at least three children” have been dead since September 30.
“The majority of the victims were shot in the head, the cœur, neck and torso, revealing a clear intent to kill or seriously injure”insists Amnesty International on the basis of the elements it has collected.
The accusation of rape on the teenager was made public in September by the leader of the Friday prayers in the town of Rask, south of Zahedan, sparking protests which then spread to the main town in the region. These clashes erupted in an already tense context. Iran has been rocked for more than two weeks by a wave of protests across the country after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, who died three days after her arrest by vice polices.