Arrest of a number of families of those killed in Iranian street protests in Isfahan

The HRANA website reported the seizure of a bus carrying the families of some of those killed in street protests in Iran in recent years, and the arrest of at least 22 of them.

As this site writes, these people were arrested on Wednesday, April 8, in Isfahan while returning from the tomb of General Asad Bakhtiari, an Iranian constitutionalist.

According to this report, among those arrested are Manouchehr Bakhtiari and Nahid Shirbisheh, the parents of Pouya Bakhtiari, one of those killed in November 2019 in Karaj, Sakineh Ahmadi, the mother of Ebrahim Kebatdar, another of those killed in November 2019, and Hourieh Farajzadeh Tarani, the sister of Shahram Farajzadeh, one of those killed in the January 2019 protests in Tehran.

Other detainees include: "Mona Shirbisheh, Pouran Nazemi, Mehrdad Bakhtiari, Kambiz Nowruzzadeh, Ashkan Shirbisheh, Arian Shirbisheh, Hamideh Kebatdar, Javad Lal Mohammadi, Hashem Amini, Iran Allahyari, Mohammad Karimi, Mahyar Zafarmehr and her daughter, Yashar Tabrizi with her two daughters, and Vahid Namwar's mother with her daughter."

As reported by HRANA, the detainees have been transferred to Isfahan Prison.

Journalist Masih Alinejad has also published audio and video files of detainees who contacted him during their detention and explained the incident.

As Ms. Alinejad wrote, the detainees chanted slogans at the tomb of General Asad Bakhtiari, "No to Iran" (in protest of the 25-year contract between Iran and China) and "No to the Islamic Republic."

The mother and father of Pouya Bakhtiari and the mother of Ebrahim Kebatdar told Alinejad that during the arrest, "over 50 police cars attacked their bus."

According to this report, Ms. Sakineh Ahmadi "passed out" during her arrest.

Despite hours having passed since this news was published on social media, police or judicial authorities have not yet released an official statement on the matter.

However, on social media, the hashtag "Arrest the protesters" has become a hot topic, and users have criticized the arrest of the families of the slain protesters, instead of addressing their protests and complaints about the killing of their children or relatives.

This is not the first time that security forces have clashed with survivors and families of those killed in protests, prisons, or even survivors of passengers on a Ukrainian plane shot down by IRGC missiles.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has on numerous occasions treated protesters with violence, not only in prisons and detention centers, but also on the streets, threatening, beating, and even detaining their families if they protest.

The proposal to demand blood money from the families, introducing them as Basij, and their killing at the hands of "hostile and counter-revolutionary groups" are among the government's efforts to change the status of those killed in recent protests in Iran, which have faced increasing violence from security forces and police every year.

Source: Radio Farda