January 13, 2026, 3:19 p.mJanuary 13, 2026, 3:19 p.m
There have been protests against the authoritarian mullahs’ regime in Iran for days. The regime’s Revolutionary Guard is reportedly taking brutal action against the demonstrators. “BBC” spoke to eyewitnesses who live in Iran and were present at the demonstrations.
A masked protester holds up a picture of Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. Image: keystone
One of the demonstrators is Omid. He is in his 40s and has been protesting against the regime in a small town in southern Iran for the past few days. He says that the Revolutionary Guard fired indiscriminately at the demonstrators.
“They shot directly into the rows of demonstrators, and people fell where they were standing.”
Omid on the shots fired by the Revolutionary Guard
The people taking to the streets would be fighting a brutal government, empty-handed.
People have been resisting the regime for around two weeks now. This responds to the demonstrations by turning off the internet across the country. Since then, reporting from Iran has become extremely difficult. Hardly any information from outside reaches Iran, let alone the demonstrators can inform the rest of the world about what is happening in their cities.
The country’s largest demonstrations to date took place last Thursday. This was after the son of the Shah, who was overthrown in 1979, called for it.
Demonstrators at protests in the Iranian capital Tehran.Image: keystone
A young Iranian woman from Tehran tells BBC that this day of protest felt like “Doomsday.”
All the streets and even isolated neighborhoods were full of protesters. And the security forces just killed, killed and killed.
After the great repression, many were afraid to go outside again. Tehran has become a battlefield. The only difference is that in a war both sides have weapons. In this scenario, only one side had weapons, the other side wrote slogans and was killed.
According to the report, eyewitnesses also say that the number of deaths reported by Western media is only a fraction of the actual death toll.
Iranian media reported that 100 security forces were killed. The demonstrators also set fire to mosques and bank buildings. This information cannot be independently verified. (nib)