Iran protests: Clashes erupt between students and security forces across Iran, rights groups say

CNN
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Violent clashes broke out on Sunday between security forces and student protesters on university campuses across Iran, according to activists and human rights groups in the country.

Students continued to demonstrate in large numbers at some of the country’s major universities despite a warning from the country’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami that Saturday was to be the last day of protest.

In video obtained by CNN via pro-reform activist outlet Iran Wire, two uniformed officers can be seen in what appears to be an attempted arrest of a protester. The video was reportedly recorded at Sanandaj Technical College in northwestern Iran.

In the capital Tehran, activist groups claimed clashes broke out between protesters, members of the Basij militia and plainclothes police at Azad University, but CNN cannot independently verify whether those involved in the clashes are security forces.

Protests have swept the Islamic Republic for weeks after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died on September 16 after being detained by ‘morals police’ and taken to a ‘re-education centre’, allegedly for not having adhered to the country’s conservative dress code.

In a video released by the activist group 1500 tasvir, a large crowd of protesters can be seen, some holding sticks. Tear gas appears to be thrown through the crowd, but it is unclear by whom it is thrown.

In another video obtained by CNN via pro-reform activist outlet IranWire, students from another university in the capital, Tehran University, can be seen marching and chanting, “Now is not the time to do mourning. It’s time for anger.

The official IRNA news agency reported a “large gathering” of students and professors at the University of Tehran “in response to recent events and the terrorist attack on the shrine of “Shahcheragh”, which took place Wednesday in the southern city of Shiraz.

Additionally, in Sanandaj, gunshots can be heard in a video released by the Kurdish rights group Hengaw, which was allegedly recorded near the University of Kurdistan.

Activist group 1500 Tasvir also released a video on Sunday showing security forces outside another educational institution in the province, the Sanandaj Technical College for Girls.

Iran Human Right (IHRNGO), a Norway-based NGO, condemned “the encroachment of university campuses by armed forces in civilian clothes and the violent crackdown on peaceful student protests”, in a statement issued on Sunday.

“As nationwide protests continued, the Islamic Republic’s plainclothes armed forces entered university campuses to crush and violently arrest protesting students,” IHRNGO said.

IHRNGO Director and Professor at the University of Oslo, Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, called on “universities and academic institutions around the world to support student demands and condemn the outrageous violation of university campuses by forces of the Islamic Republic”.

On Saturday, the leader of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, specifically called on young Iranians to refrain from protesting.

“Today is the last day of the riots. Don’t come back to the streets again. What do you want from this nation? said Salami.