Disturbing new evidence is emerging from Iran, painting a clearer picture of the state's severe crackdown on protesters, despite a nationwide internet blackout designed to obscure the truth.
Evidence of Scale Emerges from Tehran Morgue
Several videos, some shared via Starlink connections circumventing the shutdown, have focused on a forensics institute in the Kharizak neighbourhood, south of Tehran. Iranian state television has also broadcast footage from the same location.
All the footage shows a harrowing scene: a multitude of body bags. They are lined up on floors, placed on mortuary trolleys, and arranged in long rows outside the building as desperate relatives search for missing loved ones.
One particularly revealing video films a screen inside the forensics centre. The screen displays a long list of photographs identifying the deceased, while a loudspeaker calls out names, instructing relatives to collect bodies. On the left of the screen is a list of 250 jpeg numbers, each correlating to a photo of a dead person.
The date visible on the screen is Friday, 9 January 2026. This critical detail suggests that, in this one morgue alone, there were 250 bodies of people killed during the protests that took place on Thursday night, 8 January.
A Student's Death and a Secret Burial
The human cost is crystallised in the case of 23-year-old Robina Aminian. She was shot in the head on that Thursday night. Aminian was a fashion student at a Tehran university and had gone to join the demonstrations after her class.
In a testament to the authorities' attempts to control the narrative, two family members described to Sky News how they were obstructed from retrieving Robina's body. They eventually succeeded and took her to Kermanshah in western Iran, where they were forced to hold a secret burial.
Regime Fears a Repeat of History
This pattern of behaviour points to a calculated strategy by the Iranian regime. Analysts suggest it is intent on avoiding the public spectacle and powerful momentum that large-scale funeral processions and mourning ceremonies could give to the protest movement.
This tactic is learned from history. Sina Azodi of the Atlantic Council explains that during the 1979 revolution, the traditional 40-day mourning cycles for those killed created a recurring wave of protests, generating martyrs and mobilising ever-larger crowds against the Shah's regime.
"The Islamic Republic has learned that lesson," Azodi states. By preventing public gatherings and forcing secret burials, the regime aims to break that cycle.
The current situation remains extremely opaque due to the information blockade. While the US President has vowed retaliation if Iran fires on protesters, the options are complex. A key difference from 1979 is that security forces now know they cannot expect a welcome in the West if the regime falls. This makes it more likely that powerful institutions like the Revolutionary Guard will dig in, presenting a grave danger to the protesters on Iran's streets.
