Tasnim News Agency says more than 150 people identified by Iranian authorities as organisers and key actors in recent unrest in Yazd have been arrested.
According to Tasnim’s account, the arrests centre on individuals described by officials as leading or coordinating recent unrest in the city.
The agency said that those detained were associated with groups that Iranian authorities classify as hostile, including members of the Baha’i community, supporters of the Rey-Start group, individuals said to have links to the Taliban, and people alleged to be connected with foreign-based media outlets such as Iran International.
Tasnim’s report focused on the identities and affiliations of those detained as characterised by officials. It did not provide additional information about the operations or the circumstances of the arrests.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Baha’is constitute Iran’s largest unrecognised non-Muslim religious minority, with estimates placing the community at around 300,000 people.
Their faith, founded in the 19th century in the country, is not recognised by the state, which classifies Baha’is as outside the accepted religious framework.
Human Rights Watch and Minority Rights Group International report that since the 1979 revolution, Baha’is in Iran have faced restrictions on education, employment and property, along with periodic arrests.
Rights groups describe these measures as systemic discrimination, while the community maintains that it is non-political and centred on principles of equality and peaceful conduct.
Meanwhile the Iranian state has rejected a resolution by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council that strongly condemned the “violent crackdown on peaceful protests” by security forces that left thousands dead.
The human rights council called on Iran to stop the arrests of people in connection with the protests, and to take steps to “prevent extrajudicial killing, other forms of arbitrary deprivation of life, enforced disappearance, sexual and gender-based violence” and other actions violating its human rights obligations.
Iran said that the Western-led sponsors of the emergency meeting on Friday had never genuinely cared for human rights in Iran, or else they would not have imposed sanctions that have devastated the Iranian population over the past decade.
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Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 1st of August, covering the latest developments.
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