Iran probes killing of student which sparked protests

DUBAI: Iranian authorities have ordered an investigation into the fatal stabbing of a university student during a robbery, state media reported on Saturday, as the incident sparked protests at Tehran University.

Facing public anger over high inflation and a tumbling currency, and fearing renewed US “maximum pressure” under Donald Trump, Iranian authorities are wary of a repeat of protests sparked in 2022 by the death in police custody of a young woman that snowballed into the boldest challenge to the country’s clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Nineteen-year-old business student Amir Mohammad Khaleqi was stabbed to death by robbers on a motorcycle who stole his backpack late on Wednesday near a dormitory, according to media reports.

Dozens of students staged protests on Friday and Saturday demanding better security in university campus areas, according to videos posted on social media, some of which showed tense scenes of confrontation with plainclothes security men. Reuters could not verify the videos.

Iranian news websites said four students were detained and one suffered a broken nose in the unrest but Science Minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf said just one student was briefly detained, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.

President Masoud Pezeshkian asked the science minister to “rapidly follow up the case and the ensuing protests so that protests do not spread beyond the university,” ISNA reported.

Pezeshkian also said “rogue forces” should be prevented from entering Tehran University, in an apparent reference to hardline plainclothes security forces.