Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday accused arch-foes the United States and Israel of picking the surge of civil uneasiness sparked by outrage over the death of Mahsa Amini.
“I say easily that these screams and the instability were finagled by America and the enwrapping, false Zionist governance, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some treacherous Iranians abroad,” the supreme leader said.
Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly violating rules forcing women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.
Wrathfulness over Amini’s death has sparked the biggest surge of demurrers to gemstone the Islamic democracy in nearly three times, which saw security forces in Tehran crackdown on hundreds of university scholars overnight.
In his first public commentary since Amini’s death, 83- time-old Khamenei stressed that police must “stand up to culprits” and added that “whoever attacks the police leaves the people defenseless against culprits, goons, stealers”.
“The death of the youthful woman broke our hearts,” said Khamenei. “But what isn’t normal is that some people, without evidence or a disquisition, have made the thoroughfares dangerous, burned the(Holy) Quran, removed hijabs from veiled women, and set fire to kirks and buses”.
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‘Inconceivable courage’
Concern grew about a crackdown overnight on scholars at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology where, original media reported, hoot police carrying sword bullet ordnance used tear gas and paintball ordnance against hundreds of scholars.
“Woman, life, liberty,” the scholars cried, as well as “scholars prefer death to demotion”, Mehr news agency reported.
Iran’s wisdom minister, Mohammad Ali Zolfigol, came to speak to the scholars in a shot to calm the situation, the report said.
Oslo- grounded group Iran Human Rights(IHR) posted vids supposedly showing police on motorcycles chasing scholars running through an underground auto demesne and taking down detainees whose heads were covered in black cloth bags.
In one clip, which IHR said was taken at a Tehran metro station, a crowd can be heard chanting “Don’t be hysterical! Don’t be hysterical! We’re each together!”
“Hard to bear what’s passing at Sharif University in Iran,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock twittered.
“The courage of the Iranians is inconceivable. And the governance’s brute force is an expression of sheer fear of the power of education and freedom.”
The New York-grounded Centre for Human Rights in Iran said it was “extremely concerned by vids coming out of Sharif University and Tehran moment showing violent suppression of demurrers detainees being hauled down with their heads fully covered in fabric”.
demurrers were also reported at other universities, including in the central megacity of Isfahan, and unconfirmed reports by a pupil group on Twitter said dozens had been arrested in the capital.
Mehr news agency said that the Sharif University of Technology had “blazoned that due to recent events and the need to cover scholars all classes will be held nearly from Monday”.
Read More: Iran arrests woman for eating out without hijab: sister
‘Please help me’
Iran has constantly indicted outside forces of supersizing the demurrers and last week said nine foreign citizens including from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland — had been arrested.
The parents of Italian woman Alessia Piperno, 30, from Rome, said they lost contact with their son after speaking to her on Wednesday — her birthday but also entered a phone call on Sunday to say she was in jail.
“They arrested me. I’m in captivity in Tehran. Please help me,” she told them, according to Il Messaggero, Rome’s diurnal review.
She added “I’m fine but there are people then who say they’ve been outside for months and for no reason. I swear I won’t be let out again. Help me.” Italy’s foreign ministry has so far made no comment on the identity of the Italian held.
At least 92 protesters have been killed so far in the Mahsa Amini rallies, contended IHR, which has been working to assess the death risk despite internet outages and blocks on WhatsApp, Instagram, and other online services.
Amnesty International said before it had verified 53 deaths after Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said last week that “around 60” people had failed.
The chief of hoot police in Marivan, Kurdistan fiefdom, failed of his injuries Sunday after being shot during “screams”, state TV said — the 12th death reported among the security forces since September 16.
A fresh 41 people failed in clashes on Friday in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan fiefdom, IHR reported before, citing original sources.
Those demurrers were sparked by allegations a police chief in the region had ravished a teenage girl of the Baluch Sunni nonage, the rights group said.
