Iran’s security forces target students at Kurdistan University amid anti-hijab protests

Several disturbing videos surfacing online have shed a harsh light on the escalation of the Iran regime’s crackdown on protesters. In a clip uploaded by the Iran Human Rights organization on Twitter, multiple gunshots are heard being fired at a campus, along with vehicles honking and some people possibly screaming in distress. 

According to the ICHRI, the video captures an attack by state security forces on students at the Kurdistan University, which is located in the Iranian city of Sanandaj. “At Kurdistan University in Sanandaj today, state security forces fired at students. Several were reportedly injured,” the organisation wrote on Twitter on Saturday. 

According to tweets by Iran International, students who were protesting at the university were targetted by the security forces of the Islamic Republic on Saturday. As the authorities resorted to firing gunshots, multiple students sought shelter in nearby hills around the campus. 

The students were holding protests and burning posters of Qasem Soleimani, a former commander who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). As per the clips uploaded by the political group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the students held the protests while chanting “This is the last message: the entire regime is our target!" and "This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!"

Protesters burn down former supreme leader's home

Of late, the nationwide protests in Iran, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini, have zeroed in on the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as well as Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Earlier on Thursday, a group of protesters set fire to the ancestral residence of Khomeini in the city of Khomein, Al Arabiya reported.

“This year is the year of blood,” protesters chanted in unison as they vowed to “topple” current leader Ali Khamenei. The ancestral home, prior to being set ablaze, was turned into a museum to pay tribute to Khomeini, who served as the country’s first leader from  1979 to 1989.