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Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi on Friday called on Iranians to sustain protests through nightly chants and nationwide strikes, dismissing claims by authorities that conditions in the country have returned to normal amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.
Pahlavi said the Islamic Republic was seeking to “deceive the world and buy time” by portraying the situation in Iran as normal, while security forces continue to use lethal force against protesters.
"The blood of the best and bravest children of our homeland does not allow us to remain silent or retreat. If they have raised the cost of the streets through massacres and martial law, then our homes are the trenches of resistance and defiance: through strikes and not going to work, through nighttime chants and cries," Pahlavi said on X.
He urged Iranians to continue resisting through nonviolent means, including strikes and staying away from workplaces, as well as chanting and shouting slogans from their homes at night.
Pahlavi specifically called on people across Iran to take part in coordinated acts of protest from January 17 to 19, at 8 pm local time, by chanting what he described as national slogans.
“I assure you that together we will take Iran back and rebuild it anew,” he said.
An eyewitness who recently fled Iran and whose identity is being withheld for his safety recounts indiscriminate gunfire that turned city streets into a battlefield. He says he saw thousands of bodies stored at a cemetery as families searched for missing loved ones during a nationwide digital blackout.
He is risking his life to speak out and send a message to the world that the killings are still ongoing and Iranians urgently need help. He describes witnessing indiscriminate gunfire directed at unarmed civilians, narrowly escaping being shot himself.
At least 52 prisoners were executed in Iran based on prior non-political convictions during a period of nationwide protests and an ongoing internet shutdown, US-based rights group HRANA reported on Friday.
The report said the executions were carried out between January 5 and January 14 in at least 42 prisons across multiple provinces.
Those executed had previously been sentenced to death on charges including murder and drug-related offences, which HRANA said were non-political and non-security related.
The executions were reported during a time of severe restrictions on access to information, with a total internet blackout limiting public scrutiny and independent monitoring of judicial proceedings and the implementation of death sentences.
“At least 37 prisoners were executed between January 5 and January 12. Additional executions were reported in the days that followed, including a wave of executions between January 13 and January 14 in several prisons across the country,” the report said.
The group said prison authorities and relevant institutions had not officially announced the executions at the time of reporting.
Human rights organizations raised concerns about the continued use of the death penalty in Iran, particularly during periods of heightened security and restricted information flows.
“The continuation of executions amid internet shutdowns has intensified concerns over a lack of judicial transparency, access to fair trials and the increased risk of violations of the right to life,” HRANA said.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday authorities in Iran stopped what he called planned executions of more than 800 protestors.
A European diplomat, citing intelligence shared with Iran International, said their information indicates that at least 1.5 million people took to the streets in Tehran on Thursday, 8 January.
He said the number was lower on Friday, January 9, as security forces were heavily present in the streets and, in many cases, began shooting as people started to assemble, killing people en masse.
However, the European diplomat who spoke to the channel believes as many as half a million people were present in Tehran on Friday despite the mass killing.
The number of people in other cities is unclear due to the lack of foreign diplomatic presence outside Tehran—all embassies are in the capital.
However, their intelligence estimate is that at least 5 million people participated in nationwide protests on Thursday and Friday.
At least 12,000 people were killed in the deadliest crackdown in Iran’s contemporary history, carried out largely over two consecutive nights on January 8 and 9, Iran International’s editorial board concluded, based on a review of sources and medical data.
Several Iranian Kurdish political parties called on the international community to respond to the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on nationwide protests, urging governments and human rights organizations to take action.
In a joint open letter addressed to countries around the world, international institutions and human rights groups, the parties said the global community should “hear the voice of the people of Iran who have risen up” and act to stop what they described as ongoing violence by the authorities.
“We, the political parties of Kurdistan of Iran, ask the international community to hear the voice of the people of Iran,” the letter says. “Countries and human rights organizations must accept their responsibility and, with all their capacity and in every possible way, stop this regime."
"Decades of opposition to Iran’s ruling system had shown that the masses of the people and oppressed nations deserve freedom and a humane life and international support for protesters would be part of the world’s historical responsibility," the letter said.
The letter was signed by multiple Kurdish political groups, including the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), the Khabat Organization of Kurdistan of Iran, the Komala Party of Kurdistan of Iran and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, among others.
