At least 35 people have been injured, including five children, after allegedly plainclothes Iranian security officers opened fire on a group of protesters in the city of Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, this past Friday night.
The province, like several other parts of the country, continues to be the scene of protests against the death in custody of young Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for improperly wearing a headscarf.
The NGO Kurdistan Human Rights Network (HRN), which has published several unverified videos of the incidents in Sanandaj, reported that the incident occurred in the neighborhood of Mobarak Abad, one of the epicenters of the protests in the city.
According to NGOs, at least 253 demonstrators have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the demonstrations following the death of Amini on September 16, among them 34 children, according to the balance sheet compiled by the Kurdish news agency Rudaw.
It should be recalled that the police chief of the Iranian city of Zahedan, another of the centers of the protests against the authorities, was dismissed after the official investigation recognized «deaths of innocent civilians» during the police repression of the clashes that broke out in the locality at the end of last month.
Protests in the Sunni-majority town began in late September, fueled by mass marches in the rest of the country in memory of Amini.
The marches took on a special edge in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan province, where people came out to protest not only for Amini, but also against the rape of a 15-year-old Baluchi girl by a police chief.
The worst moment of the protests in Zahedan occurred on the so-called Bloody Friday, September 30, when according to the NGO Iran Human Rights a crackdown by security forces left more than 90 people dead in the city. On that day, some 150 people launched a protest against the 16th police station in the city, near a mosque, in memory of the teenage girl who was raped.
While the investigation, following the official Iranian line, blames «rioters and gunmen» for increasing tension and attempting to storm the police station, the assessment also concludes that «firing by police forces» in reaction to the march «led to the injury and death of several innocent citizens, bystanders who played no role in these disturbances.»
In this regard, the Sistan and Baluchestan Security Council has acknowledged «negligence on the part of some officials» and promised compensation for the families of the «innocent victims» as well as legal action against those involved.
Together with the chief of police of the city, the head of the threatened police station was also dismissed for his exaggerated response to the protests, according to the communiqué of the Iranian authorities published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
