Exclusive images and testimony from the January uprising in Iran have emerged, showing the scale of the regime’s crackdown on anti-government protests. Iranian security forces are believed to have killed thousands of men, women and children who had taken to the streets. The regime imposed a nationwide internet blackout, obscuring the mass killings, but a photographer in Tehran has managed to share documentation and survivor accounts.
One witness described the scene near Yaftabad in Tehran on Thursday 8 January: “People were pouring into the streets, masked and waiting for a spark. Everyone was walking, from a 100-year-old man to a four-year-old kid whose parents were holding his hand.” The crowd chanted and marched to the main road, where security forces fired teargas and shots into the air. The witness said his lungs were burning from the gas.
On Friday, the witness returned to the same neighbourhood, where the crowd attacked a Basij militia base and set fire to motorcycles. Later, in the Salsabil area, he saw security forces killing people with Kalashnikovs. Two girls knocked on his car window, pleading for help, saying four boys had been killed in front of them. Back in his own neighbourhood, a 16-year-old boy was killed with pellets; as he lay dying, a Basiji reportedly told him, “Go tell your prince to come and pull these pellets out of your body.”
Another protester described being trapped by officers: “I heard one of them shout, ‘Hit them.’ They started firing pellets from the front and behind.” He was beaten with a baton on the neck but was saved by other protesters. The dominant chant that night was for Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former shah. The protester later learned from a relative in the guard that security forces were shocked by the size of the crowd, which kept growing.
A third witness, who did not participate on Friday, heard continuous gunfire from his house, which was relatively far from central squares. At about 10pm, he heard chants and saw people being chased and shot by officers. He said the atmosphere was so suffocating that he did not think a serious gathering could form, but the call from Pahlavi drew huge crowds despite the heavy security presence.
