More than 3,000 people have died in the protests raging in Iran, the group HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency) said this Saturday (17), while a “slight increase” in internet activity was reported in the country after eight days of blackout.
The US-based group HRANA said it had verified 3,090 deaths, including 2,885 protesters, after residents reported that the crackdown appeared to have generally quelled the protests for now and state media reported more arrests.
The capital, Tehran, has been in for four days, said several residents contacted by Reuters.
Drones were flying over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday (15) or Friday (16), said residents, who asked not to be identified for security reasons.
A resident of a city in the north of the country, bordering the Caspian Sea, said the streets also seemed calm.
The protests turned into widespread demonstrations demanding an end to clerical rule in the Islamic Republic, culminating in mass violence late last week.
According to opposition groups and an Iranian official, more than 2,000 people have been killed in the worst internal unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Metrics show a slight increase in internet connectivity in #Iran this morning” after 200 hours of outage, internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on the X social network.
Connectivity remained at around 2% of normal levels, it said.
Some Iranians abroad said on social media that they managed to send messages to users living in Iran early Saturday morning.
US President Donald Trump, who had threatened “very harsh measures” if Iran executed protesters, said Tehran’s leaders had called off the mass hangings.
“I greatly respect the fact that for the leadership of Iran. Thank you!”, he posted on social media.
Iran had not announced plans for such executions or said it had called them off.
Indian students and pilgrims returning from Iran said they were largely confined to their accommodation while in the country, unable to communicate with their families.
“We only heard reports of violent protests, and a man jumped in front of our car holding a burning stick, shouting something in the local language, with anger visible in his eyes,” said Z Syeda, a third-year medical student at a Tehran university.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that commercial flights were available and that New Delhi would take measures to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian citizens.
