A new report quoting doctors on the ground has claimed that at least 16,500 protesters have died and 3,30,000 have been injured in Iran’s crackdown on weeks of demonstrations that initially began over economic issues but eventually turned into outrage calling for an end to the Iranian regime.
On Saturday, in what was the first public acknowledgement since protests rocked the country, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the unrest resulted in “several thousand” deaths.
“In this revolt, the US president made remarks in person, encouraged seditious people to go ahead and said: ‘We do support you, we do support you militarily,’” he said, while describing Donald Trump as a “criminal” and protesters as “foot soldiers” of the United States.
ALSO READ | ‘Conditions there are…’: Indians recall Iran horror after return, thank govt
16,500 protesters killed in Iran protests, report claims
A new report from doctors on the ground, obtained by The Sunday Times, said that at least 16,500 protesters have died and 3,30,000 have been injured. The report also said that most of the victims are believed to have been under the age of 30.
Professor Amir Parasta, an Iranian-German eye surgeon and medical director of Munich MED, told the publication that Iranian authorities are using military-grade weapons to counter the demonstrations this time, as “gunshot and shrapnel wounds” are being seen in the heads, necks and chests of protesters.
According to data compiled by staff in eight major eye hospitals and 16 emergency departments in Iran, at least 16,500 to 18,000 people have been killed and 330,000 to 360,000 injured, including children and pregnant women, the report said.
At least 700 to 1,000 people have reportedly lost an eye. A single hospital in Tehran, the Noor Clinic, has recorded 7,000 cases of eye injuries.
Many people have also died due to a lack of blood. Medical workers in several hospitals donated their own blood to try to save patients. In some cases, however, security forces reportedly did not allow blood transfusions.
It is worth noting that the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, and more than 22,000 arrests so far.
ALSO READ | What’s behind ‘iconic’ images of women lighting cigarettes with Khamenei’s burning photos
‘Genocide under the cover of digital darkness’
Professor Parasta called Iran’s actions a “genocide under the cover of digital darkness”. He told the publication, “They said they would kill until this stops and that’s what they are doing.”
Notably, these doctors spoke to the newspaper using Elon Musk’s Starlink, which has acted as a lifeline against state-imposed internet shutdowns in Iran. Earlier this week, SpaceX, the company that owns Starlink, made the satellite service free for people in the country.
This has placed Musk’s firm at the centre of another geopolitical flashpoint against a regional power that uses satellite jammers and signal spoofing methods, Reuters reported, citing activists, analysts and researchers.
For weeks, Iran remained under a massive internet blackout that choked the flow of information coming out of the country amid the crackdown on protests and cut off Iranians from the rest of the world.
