A teachers’ union in Iran has announced two days of public mourning over the "unjustly shed blood of justice seekers and the heinous killing of Iranian students."
The Coordinating Council of Teachers Syndicates said in a statement on October 20 that, during the “systematic repression” of recent anti-government protests, authorities have “so far taken the dear lives of a number of students and children in the most brutal way.”
The council had previously confirmed in a post on Telegram that 16-year-old Asra Panahi died following a raid by security forces on a girls' high school in Ardabil on October 13.
According to the council, Panahi died after Ardabil city officials took students from a high school to a pro-government demonstration and asked them to sing an anthem that praises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
After the pupils resisted, the security forces attacked the students and beat many of them. Ten were taken to an unknown location, while seven others were injured. Panahi reportedly died in a hospital on October 14.
Iran has been roiled by unrest -- one of the deepest challenges to the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979 -- since the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a hijab, or head scarf, improperly.
The government has launched a series of raids on schools across the country, violently arresting students, especially female students. It has also held several counterrallies to try and quell the dissent but to little effect as people continue to take to the streets across the country.
In a further sign of the crackdown, Atena Daemi, a civil activist, reported that a group of men from Evin prison was sent to the high-security Khorin prison in east Tehran. According to Daemi, this prison is known as the Slaughterhouse.
The men were transferred after a fire broke out over the weekend at Evin prison amid reports of an uprising.
Sources told Reuters that, two days before the fire, which killed at least eight people, a riot police unit arrived at the compound and began to patrol the corridors shouting "God is greatest" and banging batons on cell doors.
These sources said that the presence of the police began without any obvious provocation, and when the prisoners reacted to the behavior of the guards, their attack began.
State media originally reported eight inmates had died of smoke inhalation and 61 others were injured.
Lawyer Mustafa Nili said in a tweet on October 19 that Evin prison officials prevented Mohammad Khani, a political prisoner who was shot during the clashes, from being transferred to the hospital.
Meanwhile, protestors in various Iranian cities, including in Saveh, Kamyaran, Bukan, Arak, Tehran, and Dehgolan, continued their protests.
Videos published on social networks show students in western Iranian city of Sanandaj rallying on October 19, with chants of "Death to the Dictator,” a reference to Khamenei.