Popular anger does not subside. Violent clashes broke out in the night from sunday to monday between students and security forces in Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran’s most prestigious, state media and NGOs reported Monday (October 3rd). Riot police fired steel pellets and tear gas at protesting students, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency. These clashes took place more than two weeks into the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
The NGO Iran Human Rights, based in Oslo (Norway), released two videos on Sunday, one apparently showing Iranian police on motorbikes chasing students running in an underground car park, and the other of police on motorbikes taking away people whose heads are covered with black cloth bags.
(1of3) Major crackdown on protesters at Sharif Uni in Tehran today.
In this clip from earlier, peaceful students fleeing from police on motorcycles in parking lot… #IranProtests #MahsaAmini #Iran #مهسا_امینی #اعتصابات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/6kqL21Ss1c
— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) October 2, 2022
“Woman, life, freedom”, “students prefer death to humiliation”, chanted the demonstrators, according to the Mehr agency, adding that the Iranian Minister of Science then came to the university to talk to the students in order to calm the situation. Incidents also occurred at the University of Isfahan, in the center of the country.
At least 92 people have been killed in Iran by the crackdown since the protests began, according to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), which is trying to assess the death toll despite internet shutdowns and app blockages like WhatsApp or Instagram and other online services. Iranian authorities say that around 60 people, including 12 members of the security forces, have been killed since September 16.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Monday accused the United States and Israel and their “officers” for fomenting the protests. This is his first reaction since the beginning of the movement. The Iranian president, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, also accused the “enemies” of Iran from “conspire” against his country.