Campaigners fear Iranian authorities are intent on launching a new crackdown on opponents even under wartime conditions, after the police chief threatened to shoot protesters and treat them as enemies.
The war between the Islamic republic and the United States and Israel erupted just weeks after unprecedented protests against the clerical establishment peaked in January.
But rights groups say those demonstrations were put down in a crackdown that left thousands of people dead and tens of thousands arrested.
The conflict, which began with an air strike that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other top security officials, is the latest existential threat to the Islamic republic in its 47-year history after years of economic crises and protests.
Rights activists say that even after the killing of its leader, Iran’s system still has powerful levers of repression including the Revolutionary Guards as well as the regular police who both played a key role in putting down the protests in January.
“If anyone comes forward in line with the wishes of the enemy, we will no longer see them as merely a protester, we will see them as an enemy,” national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said in comments aired by state broadcaster IRIB late on Tuesday.
“And we will do to them what we do to an enemy. We will deal with them in the same way we deal with enemies,” he added.
“All our forces are also ready, with their hands on the trigger, prepared to defend their revolution.”
A prominent figure in Iran, Radan had initially been reported to have been killed in an Israeli strike during Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June 2025 but later emerged unscathed.
He is also one of several key officials to have so far survived the current conflict.
Source: Insider Paper
