|
The
Islamic Republic has been gripped by demonstrations since the
death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody
last month. The unrest has posed one of the boldest challenges
to Iran's clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Video footage on social media showed protesters in the city of
Zahedan, close to Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and
Afghanistan, on Friday calling for the death of "dictator"
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Basij militia,
which has played a major role in the crackdown on
demonstrations.
Dozens of people were killed in clashes in Zahedan four weeks
ago during anti-government protests. The provincial security
council has said armed dissidents had provoked the clashes,
leading to innocent people's deaths, but admitted "shortcomings"
by police.
Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed
and thousands arrested across the country. A tough crackdown by
security forces including the feared Basij militia, which has a
track record of crushing dissent, has failed to ease the unrest.
"We've seen a lot of ill treatment ... but also harassment of
the families of protesters," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of
the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a
Geneva press briefing, citing multiple sources.
"Of particular concern is information that authorities have been
moving injured protesters from hospitals to detention facilities
and refusing to release the bodies of those killed to their
families," she said.
Shamdasani added that in some cases, authorities were placing
conditions on the release of bodies, asking families not to hold
a funeral or speak to the media. Protesters in detention were
also sometimes being denied medical treatment, she said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said its intelligence unit had
foiled a bomb attack in the southern city of Shiraz, two days
after a deadly shooting at a shrine there, the guards' news
agency Sepah News said.
Wednesday's shooting, which was claimed by Islamic State, killed
15 worshippers at the Shah Cheragh shrine.
(Additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by
Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
