The armed forces have since yesterday deployed reinforcements to the northwestern Iranian city of Mahabad, the non-governmental organization for the defense of Iranian Kurdish rights Hengaw reported on Twitter, citing fire in residential areas.
Human rights organizations accuse the Iranian authorities of deploying military reinforcements in the Kurdish regions where anti-regime protests have intensified and fear a strengthening of the repression.
The armed forces have since yesterday deployed reinforcements to the northwestern Iranian city of Mahabad, the non-governmental organization for the defense of Iranian Kurdish rights Hengaw reported on Twitter, citing fire in residential areas.
The group posted photos showing a military helicopter carrying members of the Revolutionary Guards flying over Mahabad.
According to Hengaw, shopkeepers went on strike today to protest the crackdown.
Authorities “cut off electricity in Mahabad on Sunday and automatic weapons fire is heard,” wrote Mahmoud Amiri-Moghadam, director of the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), adding that there were reports of dead or injured protesters. In an audio document that he posted, shots and shouts can be heard.
According to the Hengaw organization, explosions were heard in the early hours of Sunday in several cities of the Kurdistan province such as Marivan, Bukan and Saghez. The situation is critical in the town of Diwandarleh, where security forces killed three protesters yesterday, according to the organization.
Tasnim news agency reported that “rioters attacked, looted and set fire to houses in Mahabad belonging to the police and military. Order and security have been restored,” the Iranian news agency reported.
The Kurds are one of Iran’s main ethnic minorities, numbering 10 million of Iran’s 83 million population. Most Kurds in Shiite Iran are Sunni.
Since mid-September and the death of Mahsa Amini, who belonged to the Kurdish minority, protests against her arrest and death for violating the dress code imposed on women have turned into an anti-establishment movement.
At least 378 people have been killed in the crackdown on the protest movement, according to the latest tally released yesterday by Iran Human Rights. Among the dead are 47 children.
Six arrested protesters have been sentenced to death so far.
Iranian actress Hengameh Ghaziani was arrested on Sunday by Iranian security forces for publicly removing her headscarf in a video she posted to express her support for the protest movement in Iran, Irna news agency reported.
Iran’s judiciary has announced that it has summoned Hengameh Ghaziani, before her arrest, along with seven other figures in cinema, politics and sports for publishing “provocative” content in support of the protest movement, the judiciary said.
Among these figures are Persepolis football team coach Yahya Golmohammadi and reformist former MPs Mahmoud Sadegi and Parvaneh Salasouri.
Yahya Golmohammadi last week heavily criticized the national team’s players for “not carrying the voice of the oppressed people to the ears of the authorities” after Iran’s national team met with President Ibrahim Raisi.
The two former MPs openly supported the protest movement, mainly on Twitter, and denounced the use of violence against protesters.
The director of the Iranian Boxing Federation, who is in Spain for an event, announced his decision not to return to Iran.
“I decided not to return to Iran to be the voice of those whose voices are not heard by the authorities,” Hossein Suri said in a video posted yesterday.
And in Qatar, where the World Cup kicked off, defender Ehsan Haishafi said Iran’s national team wanted to be “the voice” of the people.
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