Iranian security forces killed a 31-year-old protester outside his family home two days after he was shot and wounded during demonstrations in Shahroud, northeastern Iran, several sources close to him told Iran International.
Saeed Golsorkhi, an athlete and powerlifter, was shot in the knee during protests on January 9 and taken to hospital, the sources said. Concerned he could be arrested there, Golsorkhi discharged himself and returned home to continue treatment.
Security forces and Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents raided the family home on January 11, assaulted relatives and used pepper spray against Golsorkhi’s mother, according to the sources.
The forces bound Golsorkhi’s hands while his wounded knee was still bleeding and took him outside, the sources said. They blocked both ends of the alley before shooting him at close range in the head and abdomen.
Golsorkhi’s mother and his young niece witnessed the shooting, and he died in his mother’s arms, according to the sources.
Iran International previously reported on January 28 that Revolutionary Guards intelligence agents raided Golsorkhi’s home and shot him dead in front of his mother after he chanted “Death to Khamenei.”
Killings in Shahroud
Golsorkhi’s death forms part of a broader picture of the January crackdown in Shahroud documented by Iran International.
Eyewitnesses previously told that security forces killed at least 200 people in the city on January 8 and 9. The deaths of 22 women were recorded at Bahar Hospital alone, according to those accounts.
Other accounts from Shahroud have described security forces firing directly at protesters and authorities imposing restrictions on the families of those killed.
Iran International previously reported that Hossein Gharib, a 32-year-old athlete from Shahroud, was shot dead by security forces on January 9. His body was released only after his family agreed not to publicize his death and to hold a burial attended by no more than 10 people.
Brother detained, family barred from public mourning
Golsorkhi’s brother, Navid Golsorkhi, was arrested after the killing and held in temporary detention for about a month.
The family was able to retrieve Golsorkhi’s body several days later after agreeing to hold his burial without a gathering or public ceremony. Golsorkhi was buried on January 15 under tight security.
Security forces also blocked both ends of the street outside his mother’s home to prevent people from visiting the family to offer condolences, sources close to the family said. The family was not permitted to hold a public memorial.
The restrictions were not limited to Golsorkhi’s relatives. Iran International documented similar measures following the January crackdown, including bodies being returned at night, families being required to hold restricted burials and authorities preventing public mourning ceremonies.
Golsorkhi was a powerlifter and owned a clothing store in Shahroud.
People close to him said he admired the Pahlavi family and had an image of Reza Shah Pahlavi tattooed on his arm.
Witnesses and local sources identified Abbas Rasoulifar, a former Guards member with experience fighting alongside forces supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria, as directing operational groups deployed against protesters in Shahriar.
Parts of this investigative report are based on accounts from witnesses and local sources. The allegations are attributed to those who made them, and their inclusion does not mean that all details have been independently verified by the author.
Witness accounts from Shahriar and other cities around the capital describe security forces firing live ammunition from police stations, mosques and rooftops, deploying snipers and armored vehicles, and dividing urban areas into operational zones.
The accounts point to similarities between some tactics used during the crackdown and methods associated with urban warfare in Syria.
Shahriar religious site emerges as operations hub
The protests began with strikes by shopkeepers in Tehran before spreading rapidly to surrounding cities and much of Tehran province.
Demonstrations peaked on January 8 and 9 following a call by exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, with a crackdown already underway turning particularly deadly during those two days.
In Shahriar, the locations of reported shootings and security deployments point to the vicinity of the Imamzadeh Esmail shrine as a center for assembling and dispatching forces.
The shrine hosted events associated with Iranian fighters deployed to Syria during the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, who visited the site several times.
Rasoulifar, the shrine's executive director, emerged as a central figure during Iran International's examination of people connected to the site.
Witness accounts and other findings show that Rasoulifar commanded operational groups during the January crackdown and personally fired a handgun at protesters. Forces under his direction were dispatched across Shahriar from a base near the shrine, according to the investigation.
The base sits in a residential area behind the shrine and next to a boys' high school. Sources said it served as an assembly and preparation point for personnel sent to confront protesters.
From Syria to Shahriar
Rasoulifar, born in 1963, joined the Basij in 1979 and the Revolutionary Guards in 1984, according to published accounts of his background. He has longstanding ties to the Guards and participated in several operations during the Iran-Iraq war.
Javan newspaper, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, documented Rasoulifar's presence in Syria in 2017 as one of the Iranian personnel called by the Islamic Republic as "defenders of the shrine," a misleading title reserved for the forces that were sent to Syria.
At the time, the Quds Force and allied forces were fighting alongside Assad's forces on several fronts in Syria.
Rasoulifar's deployment establishes his involvement in Iran's military operations in Syria, although the available evidence does not establish precisely which battles or urban operations he participated in.
His name has also surfaced in connection with earlier domestic crackdowns, including in 2009 and the November 2019 protests in Shahriar. Witnesses have also accused him of involvement in the killing of protester Nader Momeni in Shahriar in 2019.
Similar tactics reported across Tehran province
Iran International's examination of witness accounts shows that security operations across several cities in Tehran province shared common features, raising questions about the extent to which the crackdown was centrally coordinated rather than shaped by individual decisions by local units.
In Eslamshahr, police and riot-control forces went on alert in Zarafshan and Bagh-e Feyz on January 7 as strikes began.
As protesters moved toward the Saveh road the following day, police vehicles fired flares, according to witnesses. The accounts indicate that the flares were used to illuminate gatherings and help other units locate protesters.
Witnesses in Vavan, near Eslamshahr, said live ammunition was fired that night from the roof of a mosque and around Khomeini Square. Similar accounts of religious buildings being used as firing positions later emerged elsewhere.
In Parand, in Robat Karim county, witnesses said armed personnel speaking Arabic fired directly at protesters from inside mosques and bases on January 8. Some witnesses identified them as members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, though Iran International could not independently confirm their identity.
Witnesses also described forces apparently retreating to draw protesters toward Parand's Police Station 18 on January 8 and 9 before firing live ammunition once part of the crowd entered the surrounding area. Witnesses said protesters were killed in the shooting.
Snipers, armored vehicles and power cuts
In Pakdasht, southeast of the capital, security forces deployed a large armored vehicle and firearms against protesters around Mamazand and Allameh Street on January 8, according to witness accounts.
Clashes continued the following day, when witnesses described intense gunfire, including machine-gun fire by Basij and Revolutionary Guards forces.
In Gharchak, electricity around Kalantari Square was cut on the evening of January 8 before shooting began from inside a police station, witnesses said. Snipers positioned on the roof and different floors of a restaurant in Khomeini Square also fired at protesters in the darkness, according to local accounts.
Local sources put the number of people killed there in the dozens.
In Varamin, southeast of Tehran, vehicles equipped with loudspeakers played religious chants at high volume as security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition on January 9, according to witnesses.
Shahr-e Qods, also known as Ghaleh Hassan Khan, south of Tehran, experienced severe internet disruption and a power outage on January 8. Witnesses said snipers positioned on the roof of the Milad commercial complex and armed groups fired at protesters on January 8 and 9.
Some witnesses again identified Arabic-speaking personnel as members of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces.
Local accounts said dozens were killed. Among those identified was Ilya Qodsi, who was fatally shot in the head.
Witnesses describe abuse away from protests
Accounts from Pardis and Bumehen, in the east of the capital, describe violence extending beyond shootings at demonstrations.
Mohammadreza Moradgholi, a 19-year-old protester, was detained on the evening of January 8 and taken into a security forces' vehicle, according to one account. The source said that personnel killed him by cutting a blood vessel.
Another account said security forces searched a young man's phone near the Pardis toll station on January 9 and detained him after finding a photograph of Pahlavi.
Personnel severely beat the man and forced him to swallow two pills before leaving him on a street around midnight, according to the account.
Witnesses in the area also described loud religious chants accompanying baton beatings, direct gunfire and tear gas.
Syria experience raises questions over crackdown
Across the cities examined, recurring features included the use of rooftops and elevated positions for gunfire, power cuts, operational zones, live ammunition and coordinated deployments from fixed bases.
Iran International's findings indicate two particular similarities with urban warfare methods used in Syria: dividing cities into operational sectors and assigning units responsibility for controlling designated areas.
Rasoulifar's military background in Syria and his role organizing operational groups in Shahriar provide a direct personnel link between Iran's foreign military campaigns and the January crackdown.
Taken together, witness accounts from cities of Tehran province depict a crackdown in which lethal tactics appeared repeatedly across Tehran's heavily populated outer cities, extending methods of armed urban control to the capital's surrounding belt.
“The fact that a teenager sets out on a route where there is a risk of being shot, a mine explosion or an accident, either to help their family or cover school and living expenses, should be a serious warning to society,” labor activist Abdollah Belvasi told ILNA. “A child should be sitting at a school desk, not on a kolbari route.”
Poverty and unstable household incomes are increasingly affecting children in families living along Iran’s borders, Belvasi said.
A shortage of jobs has also left many young people, including university graduates and accomplished athletes, facing a choice between kolbari, with its risk of death, or migration away from their homes and families, according to Belvasi.
Unemployment and a lack of prospects have prompted many young people in Kordestan to consider leaving their cities or even Iran, Belvasi added.
Economic pressures deepen
Iran has faced years of high inflation, a weakening currency and unemployment, eroding purchasing power and making basic living costs increasingly difficult for many households.
Residents of some border communities have turned to kolbari to earn a living. Kolbars typically carry heavy loads on foot across difficult mountainous terrain, and some have been killed in shootings by Iranian security forces or died in accidents and mine explosions.
The growing gap between wages and living costs, reduced working hours and skilled workers moving into informal employment have highlighted the depth of Iran’s employment problems in recent weeks.
Hormozgan Workers’ House said on Friday that around 20,000 workers had lost their jobs because of an economic slowdown and business closures.
Kolbar deaths risk becoming routine
Deaths among kolbars are gradually being treated as routine news, receiving attention and prompting protests for several days before fading from public discussion, Belvasi warned.
“When a kolbar is killed, a family suffers,” he said. “A breadwinner may be lost, children may be left without a father, or a family may have to contend with medical expenses and disability. If we see kolbari only in terms of numbers and statistics, we ignore the human dimension of the tragedy.”
Government promises have failed to address the underlying conditions driving people into the work, Belvasi went on to say.
“The issue of kolbari cannot be solved simply by confronting the kolbar,” Belvasi added. “If the main causes – poverty, unemployment and the lack of stable job opportunities –are not addressed, the issue will emerge again. The root causes must be addressed.”
Discrimination, uneven development and a lack of employment opportunities remain fundamental problems in Iran’s border regions despite their economic, human and natural resources, according to Belvasi.
