CNN
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Funerals gather to commemorate the 40 days since the death of Nika ShahkaramiAn Iranian teenager who went missing on September 20 after attending protests in the capital Tehran was hit with guns and tear gas by security forces, according to video posted on social media and located by CNN. physical.
Video clearly shows smoke from tear gas near a bridge where mourners gathered near the Veysian village. Gunshots were apparently heard in another video clip shared on social media. It is not clear if there were any casualties.
The boy’s grandmother, Atash Shahkarami, posted a photo on Instagram saying that the 40-day commemoration will be held on Thursday at a cemetery in Lorestan province.
The video shows mourners holding pictures of Shahkarami and chanting “Khamenei will be overthrown in this bloody year”, “We are all Nika, let’s fight”, “Death to the dictator” and “Death to Khamenei.”
When the 16-year-old girl went missing, she was attending one of the protests that surfaced across the country against the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman who died last month in her detention camp. state after being detained by the country’s ethics police.
On Thursday, CNN announced an exclusive investigation in the last hours of Shahkarami’s life.
Iranian authorities claimed Shahkarami’s body was found in the back yard on the morning of September 21. Her mother was not approached to identify her until eight days later.
CCTV footage released by authorities timestamped shortly after midnight when September 20 became September 21 shows the silhouette of a masked person they say is Shahkarami entering an empty building. inhabited and is still under construction in Tehran.
A Tehran prosecutor initially said that she died after being thrown from the roof of the building and that her death was “not related to the protests” that day, but despite apparently claiming Her death was a homicide, he did not say whether there was a suspect or not. under investigation.
But dozens of videos and eyewitness accounts exclusively obtained by CNN show that Shahkarami appeared to have been pursued and detained by Iranian security forces that night. A key witness, Ladan, told CNN she saw Shahkarami being arrested at the rally by “several plainclothes security officers” who bundled her up in a car.
On Wednesday, after CNN asked the government to comment on evidence in this investigation, an Iranian media report quoted a Tehran prosecutor as saying Shahkarami’s death was a suicide. Iranian authorities have yet to respond to CNN’s repeated questions about her death.
Thursday’s crackdown on mourners in Veysian comes after clashes broke out across Iran as people tried to mark 40 days since Amini’s death, a key day of mourning in the tradition of Iran. Iran and Islam.
On the same day, a Shia holy shrine in the city of Shiraz was attacked on Wednesday leaving at least 15 dead and more than 40 injured, ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency reported. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Iranian leaders have attributed the attack to anti-government protesters.
On Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei vowed to take action against the attackers. “The perpetrator or perpetrator of this notorious crime will certainly be punished,” he said.
Iranian military commanders also threatened anti-government protesters with further crackdowns, after claiming they were “complicit” in Wednesday’s attack, according to a statement by state news agency IRNA.
The commanders did not provide evidence for the claim.
Iran’s armed forces said in a statement that the protests were designed to create “insecurity and chaos” and added “this act of terrorism is also part of that design.”
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that evidence from the attack showed that “foreign interventionists” had “designed a multi-layered project” to weaken the country.
“We certainly will not let Iran’s national security and interests be toyed with by terrorists and foreign interventionists who claim to protect human rights,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said. in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
