Tehran: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the US and Israel are backing the unrest triggered by the custodial death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
He said the riots and insecurity in Iran were engineered by America and the occupying false Zionist regime and their paid agents. He added that "traitorous Iranians abroad" are also to blame. The 83-year-old leader further said the police must "stand up to criminals" because "whoever attacks the police leaves the people defenceless against criminals, thugs, thieves".
Addressing the untimely death of Amini, he said: "The death of the young woman broke our hearts. But what is not normal is that some people, without proof or an investigation, have made the streets dangerous, burned the Koran, removed hijabs from veiled women, and set fire to mosques and cars," reported AFP.
Iran has been seeing nationwide unrest in which women took to the streets to publicly burn their headscarves and cut their hair. Students at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology yelled "woman, life, liberty" and "students prefer death to humiliation." Iran's science minister, Mohammad Ali Zolfigol spoke to students in an effort to calm the situation.
Police have been executing a crackdown that has resulted in many deaths. At least 92 protesters have been killed so far.
Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights shared videos in which police were seen chasing students in an underground car park. Detainees were seen with their heads covered in black cloth bags. In another video, a crowd was seen chanting: "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! We are all together!"