Pooya Bakhtiari, shot in the head and killed by security forces during Iran’s protests on November 16, 2019
Another detailed report has documented the killing of hundreds of civilians by Iran’s security forces in recent protests.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran sets out testimony and evidence in the 66-page “Gunning Them Down: State Violance Against Protesters in Iran”.
The report covers the November 2019 protests, sparked by the Government’s sudden 50% to 200% rise in fuel prices, and January’s demonstration over the Iranian military’s lie that it did not shoot down a Ukrainian jet with 176 passengers and crew.
Amnesty International has already confirmed the killing of at least 304 protesters in November, many of them shot at close range and some while fleeing.
See Iran Daily, Feb 21: Amnesty Challenges Regime’s Human Rights Violations
“Gunning Them Down” complements this with first-hand accounts from survivors and eyewitnesses.
“They Aimed at My Son’s Head”
Nahid Shirpisheh, the mother of 27-year-old Pouya Bakhtiari, was just behind him in a protest in Karaj, west of Tehran, on November 16. She told CHRI:
They aimed at my son’s head and deliberately killed him….I thought the bullets were not real and
therefore if any of us got injured, it wouldn’t be a problem.But to my surprise, the bullets were real and they shot my son in the head, which means they deliberately aimed [to kill].
There cannot be any other reason. They were given orders from above to fire bullets but they had no right to do so.
The family was prevented from mourning at Bakhtiari’s grave, with police arresting people at the cemetery. Bakhtiari’s parents were taken into custody “to prevent plotters from continuing to cause more deaths with the repeat of armed action against the people”.
“God Will Not Forgive This Injustice”
Ebrahim Ketabdar, a shopkeeper and father of two children, was shot in the heart and killed in Karaj on the same day. His mother Sakineh Ahmadi recalled:
They shot a bullet through his heart as soon as he stepped out of his shop with his hands in his pockets. He wasn’t in the protests and had nothing to do with them and yet he was shot….
God will not forgive this injustice. I saw there was an uproar in the street. They were firing bullets and beating up the people.
Beating women. Beating everything around them.
Ketabdar’s body was only released to the family after his family signed a pledge of silence. On the 40th day of his death, the traditional time for memorial, plainclothes agents surrounded relatives at the shopkeeper’s grave.
Rejecting “Blood Money”
Borhan Mansournia, a 28-year-old veterinarian, was shot in the back with the bullet piercing his stomach, as he watched November 16 protests in Kermanshah in western Iran. He passed away two days later, with authorities not mentioning the shooting on his death certificate.
His relatives told CHRI that when they tried to file a judicial complaint, Mansouria’s father was summoned to the Intelligence Ministry. He refused — “If anyone wants to talk to me, he has to come to the mosque and face me among the people” — and the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence branch finally offered blood money. Mansouria’s father rejected the “extremely disgraceful” gesture, and the Guards’ attempt to declare his son a “martyr” of the protests.
“How Could They Shoot at a Kid?”
Mohammad Dadsetankhah, 15, ws shot and killed as he walked home from high school in Shiraz in central Iran. His sister Ghazal Dadsetankhah said authorities offered to pay his parents blood money but were vague about the cause of death to avoid responsibility.
Why should we care about blood money when our brother has been killed? Let them declare my brother a god or a martyr. Is that going to bring him back to life? M
My brother was only 15 years old. He was in his first year of high school. He was a kid. He wasn’t participating in the protests. Why did they shoot him? We want to know who killed my brother. We want to ask them how could they shoot at a kid?
This is what the military spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, actually said about the downing of the plane: “The rumors about the plane are completely false and no military or political expert has confirmed it.”
At the time, the military was STILL INVESTIGATING whether one of their missiles had hit the plane. They had confirmed nothing. Iran does not have an integrated air defense so any launch would not have been authorised by the high command but rather by a local SAM operator.
So Iran’s military top brass was as much in the dark about what happened as the civilian authorities. They didn’t conceal what had occurred.
Rastgoo,
Thank you for confirming my point. At the time Shekarchi made the statement, the Iranian military knew that the passenger jet had been downed by missiles fired from the anti-aircraft battery near Tehran.
S.
“You missed that the Iranian military claimed “engine failure”, not only in public statements but in statements to Rouhani and his Ministers, before the Civil Aviation Organisation statement.”
Prove it.
“Kaleme, estimated that at least 631 people had been killed in connection with the November protests. Reuters reported “About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on November 15”
So, let’s get this right. The Iranian government’s own estimate, as allegedly related to Reuters, is 2.5 times that of the opposition Green movement??!!
Rastgoo,
The Kalameh account was only of demonstrators who were slain. The Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters referred to demonstrators, security personnel, and bystanders.
S.
Oh please!!
“The Iranian military’s lie that it did not shoot down a Ukrainian jet with 176 passengers and crew.”
Oh, please, you illiterate and ignorant little redneck!!
The Iranian military never lied about the shooting down of the plane. They held an investigation that lasted three days during which time the civilian government denied reports of a missile hitting the plane. General Hajzadeh has stated the truth about what happened,. There was no “cover up”. Rather, the military did not communicate what happened to the civilian government until the investigation was complete: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCTzXiSZJrs
Rastgoo,
Looks like this piece struck a nerve.
The record is that the Iranian military said from Wednesday to Saturday, when it finally acknowledged the shootdown, that the cause of the crash was “engine failure”.
But you’re half-right: the military did not tell Rouhani on Friday — at least according to him — of the actual circumstances.
S.
The Iranian *military* never said that. The Iranian civil aviation organization said that engine failure was the reason: https://www.euronews.com/2020/01/09/iranian-missile-caused-crash-of-ukrainian-boeing-737-us-officials
“In a press conference, Ali Abedzadeh, chief of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAOI). said: “One thing is for certain – that plane has not been hit by a missile.”
The reason he gave was the the plane did not explode in mid-air. It later became known that the proximity fuse used meant the missile exploded near to the plane but did not collide with it. Neither Khamenei or Rouhani were informed until Friday.
I just can’t see how a tenured professor and professional journalist can make such a mistake!
Rastgoo,
You missed that the Iranian military claimed “engine failure”, not only in public statements but in statements to Rouhani and his Ministers, before the Civil Aviation Organisation statement.
Indeed, the CAO statement was based on that “information” provided by the Iranian military.
S.
Mohammad Dastankhah was not the only person not protesting when he was killed. Mina Sheikhi was shot and killed on the balcony of her flat by unknown assailants. Several others were killed on their way to work. This shows that there were people firing on non-protesting civilians who were not from the security forces. As the CHRI report states, “Golnar Samsami was a 34-year-old mother, was on her way home after work when she was struck in the head by a bullet on Vali Asr St. ” (page 24). Amirhossein Kabiri, 33, was killed by a bullet, even though he was not a participant in a nearby protest, on November 19, 2019, in the Golshahr district of Karaj,” (page 27).
Rastgoo,
This in no way shows that “here were people firing on non-protesting civilians who were not from the security forces”. It merely shows that the specific assailant has not been identified (as is often the case when security forces fire on civilians).
S.