Reliable sources say the protesters arrested during the protests in Khuzestan are detained under torture and pressure. An informed source said: “The intelligence services take the arrestees to an uncertain location. Those arrested say, ‘they cannot distinguish day from night.’ ”
According to the same source, “To intimidate and terrorize the arrestees, the torturers and interrogators cover their faces. Torturers use various tools including iron rods to beat the arrested protesters. The arrested persons are blindfolded during the interrogation so that they cannot see the face of their torturers and interrogators. Once the interrogation is finished, the protester is taken to a dark room with no lights. The prisoner spends all days and nights in absolute darkness. For psychological torture, the detained protesters are held in this location for some time. Then, they are sent to the wards.”
Another report on the conditions of protesters states that a large group of these detainees arrested in the cities of Abadan, Shadegan, and Khorramshahr, are kept in a makeshift Iman Hussein Hospital on Ahvaz-Khorramshahr Rd. near Darkhovin and across from the Oil Company.
Another detention center is the Bakeri Camp in the outskirts of Khorramshahr, located near the Roads Police Station. More than 70 protesters are detained in the Bakeri Camp.
The detained protesters are held in dire conditions in Mahshahr.
“The detainees are held in a dark and small area. They are viciously tortured and kept in the heat of summer. The detention center is so overcrowded that the detainees are not able to sit down, and they have to stand up all day and night.”
The water shortage protests erupted in Khuzestan Province on July 15, 2021, against the destructive policies of the clerical regime. The protests rapidly spread from Ahvaz to the cities of Hamidieh, Bostan, Susangerd, Port of Mahshahr, Khorramshahr, Shadegan, Kut-e Abdullah, Mollasani, Ramshir, Behbahan, Izeh, and Masjid Soleiman.
Iranians rose up in protest and in solidarity with the people of Khuzestan in other parts of the country including in Khorramabad, Karaj, Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz, Ilam, etc. Security forces and intelligence services cracked down on all these protests and made many arrests.
