The number of protests in Iran has risen to more than 3,000, human rights activists said on Saturday. Meanwhile, some reports claimed the protest-hit country saw a “very slight increase” in internet activity after the eight-day blackout. Here are all the latest updates you need to know about the protests in Iran:
1. The US-based HRANA group, cited by Reuters, said it had verified 3,090 dead, including 2,885 protesters, after residents said the crackdown appeared to have largely quelled the protests so far.
2. The capital, Tehran, has reportedly been relatively quiet for the past four days, several residents interviewed by Reuters said. Drones flew over the city, but there were no signs of major protests on Thursday or Friday, said residents who did not want to be identified for their safety.
3. Meanwhile, internet monitoring group NetBlocks posted on X, “Metrics show very slight increase in internet connectivity in #Iran this morning” after 200 hours of downtime. Connectivity remained around 2 percent of normal levels, he said. Several overseas Iranians on social media said they managed to send a message to users living in Iran early Saturday morning.
4. US President Donald Trump, who has threatened “very strong action” if Iran executes protesters, said Tehran’s leaders had called off the mass hanging. “I greatly respect the fact that all the planned hangings that were supposed to take place yesterday (over 800 of them) have been canceled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” posted on social networks.
Iran has not announced plans for such executions or said it has canceled them.
5. Indian students and pilgrims returning from Iran said they were largely confined to accommodation while in the country and unable to communicate with their families back home.
“We only heard stories of violent protests and one man jumped in front of our car with a flaming baton and shouted something in the local language, anger in his eyes,” said Z Syeda, a third-year medical student at Tehran University.
6. The Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that commercial flights are available and that Delhi will take steps to ensure the safety and welfare of Indian citizens.
7. Meanwhile, across Europe, thousands of exiled Iranians took to the streets to shout their anger at the Islamic Republic’s government, which has cracked down on protests in their homeland, reportedly killing thousands.
Iran protests
Nationwide protests erupted in Iran on Dec. 28 over economic woes, escalating into large-scale demonstrations calling for the end of the Islamic republic’s clerical rule. This eventually culminated in mass violence late last week.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in the worst domestic unrest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, according to opposition groups and an Iranian official.