Iranian police have beaten a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Parmis Hamnava to death after she tore away the portraits of the country’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini out of her school books.
The incident as reported by local news on Sunday night happened in Iranshahr in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province went down when security forces invaded the school in order to search the books of the students.
The Jerusalem Post reported that a riot squad stormed a secondary school in the eastern city of Iranshahr last Tuesday to find any trace of schoolgirls’ participation in the nationwide anti-government protests.
In the process, they discovered the torn-up photo in Hamnava’s textbook which resulted in their brutal action of beating the girl in the presence of other students and she gave up the ghost in the hospital she was rushed to.
Schoolgirls across Iran have joined the countrywide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini that was killed by the morality police over her alleged flouting of the Islamic women’s dress code.
The protests have lasted more than a month, leading to clashes with teachers and armed security forces, who have arrested some teenage girls they suspect of having taken part in demonstrations.
Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has estimated that 222 people have been killed in the widespread demonstrations that hit 19 Iranian cities.
As the country gradually plunges into civil unrest, President Ebrahim Raisi has accused the United States of causing destabilisation in Iran.
A news agency in the country, Halwash said students who were witnesses gave the account of the horrible incident.
“Security guards stormed the school last Tuesday and searched the books of all the students, she had ripped pictures of Khomeini, for this crime, and they started beating her in front of other students,” a source told Halwash.
“Her nose was bleeding badly, and she was taken to a hospital…She died on Wednesday and was taken to Zahedan for burial,” it added.
The death of Hamnava has aggravated protests as there were clashes at Iran’s University of North Tehranas police officers were seen firing a weapon from a position among protesters at Iran’s on Sunday.
Iranshar, located in the Sistan and Balochistan province has seen violent clashes over the past few days as well.
Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, was the scene of a violent crackdown on September 30 in which security forces killed 92 people, including 12 children which was dubbed Zahedan’s Black Friday.
