(C) Articulo 14
TEHRAN / SEOUL – As the Iranian government continues its violent crackdown on anti-government protests, shocking evidence has emerged suggesting that security forces are conducting "summary executions" of protesters.
On January 11, Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based NGO, reported the death of Rubina Aminian, a 23-year-old student majoring in textile and fashion design at Shariati University in Tehran. According to witness testimonies and family statements, Aminian was killed on January 8 after being shot in the back of the head at close range during a demonstration.
Aminian, an ethnic Kurd from Marivan, became a face of the tragedy after her mother traveled to Tehran and was forced to search through hundreds of body bags at a forensic center to identify her daughter. IHR further alleged that security forces surrounded the family home and blocked a proper funeral, forcing the family to bury her on a roadside.
The scale of the carnage was captured in leaked footage from the Kahrizak Forensic Center on the outskirts of Tehran. The video shows approximately 250 black body bags lining the floors of a warehouse-like facility. Distraught relatives are seen collapsing and screaming as they unzip bags to identify missing loved ones.
Medical professionals are reporting a chilling pattern in the casualties. Dr. Kayvan Mirhadi, an internal medicine chief at a New York hospital who provides medical advice to protesters via social media, shared accounts from doctors on the ground in Tehran and Mashhad. "I was told of 20 bodies arriving at once, all with gunshot wounds to the head," Mirhadi said. "This is not crowd control; this is targeted killing." Based on reports from local medical staff, Mirhadi estimates the death toll in Tehran alone may exceed 1,000.
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) currently estimates that at least 544 people have been killed nationwide, including 483 protesters, with over 10,600 individuals detained. The international community and human rights organizations are calling for an immediate investigation into what appears to be a systematic campaign of lethal force against unarmed civilians.
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