Over 50,000 arrested in Iran protest crackdown: rights group

PARIS: Iranian authorities have arrested over 50,000 people as part of their crackdown on protests, an NGO said on Tuesday, adding that fresh detentions were ongoing.

Rights groups have accused Iran’s security forces of killing thousands of people in a crackdown on protests that peaked on January 8 and 9 and have since subsided.

But police have also been rounding up large numbers of people from all sections of society nationwide, with the Islamic republic’s leaders blaming “rioters” supported from abroad for the unrest.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had counted at least 50,235 arrests linked to the protests.

Arrests have targeted “a wide range of citizens, including students, writers and teachers”, it said.

“In some cases, arrests were accompanied by home searches and the confiscation of personal belongings.”