TEHRAN: Iran and a human rights group have released conflicting figures of casualties during the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini since September, with a Revolutionary Guards general claiming the death toll was over 300 and the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights putting it at 416.

This is for the first time Iran reported that over 300 people have died in over two months of protests. The toll includes dozens of police, troops and militia killed in clashes with demonstrators or murdered.

“Everyone in the country has been affected by the death of this lady [Mahsa Amini]. I don’t have the latest figures, but I think we have had perhaps more than 300 martyrs and people killed in this country, including children, since this incident,” Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards’ aerospace division, said in a video published by the Mehr news agency on Tuesday.

However, in an updated toll issued on Tuesday, the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights published that at least 416 were “killed in the suppression of protests in Iran”.

The group stated the toll included those killed in violence related to the Amini protests as well as those in distinct unrest in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Iran’s judiciary on Tuesday announced the release of more than 1,100 detainees, including protesters, in 20 provinces, Mizan Online website reported.

The site also reported the release on bail of former national football team goalkeeper Parviz Boroumand. He was arrested in early this month during protests in Tehran, Iranian media outlets reported.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2022