Three people were killed after Iranian forces opened fire at scores of protesters in the western town of Mahabad, according to local media reports.
A scuffle had broken out between security forces and the agitators who were targeting the government buildings in protest against the killing of an anti-regime protester, Ismail Moloudi.
The protesters had gathered there after Moloudi was buried in the city.
Videos of the funeral site showed a group of people, allegedly family and friends of the deceased, shouting “the Shahid (martyr) will not die,” according to the Hengaw Human Rights Organization.
WION couldn’t verify the authenticity of these videos.
The protesters had then marched towards the governor’s office in Mahabad— a largely ethnically Kurdish town—where they faced off with the security guards.
Mahabad officials claimed that “terrorist-separatist groups” were behind the attack on government facilities, and accused protesters of attacking “political and security centres with the aim to occupy them”, reports BBC.
Local reports claimed that two women and a man were among those shot by security forces.
Rights group Amnesty International claimed that security forces have killed eight people since Wednesday.
According to internet watchdog NetBlocks, internet access was disrupted in Mahabad on Thursday evening following the clashes.
Another Iranian town in the west witnessed similar clashes between the protesters and security forces, with chants of “down with the dictator”, a reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, reverberating across the area.
The agitators had gathered in Khorramabad cemetery to mourn Nika Shakarami, who disappeared soon after Mahsa Amini’s death and became another symbol of the protest movement.
For over a month, Iran had been rocked by a series of street protests following the death of Amini, who was detained by Iran’s morality police for not wearing the Islamic headscarf appropriately.
(With inputs from agencies)
WATCH WION LIVE HERE:
