Although they started out as a peaceful rally against the close-down of the reformist "Salam" newspaper, the July 1999 demonstrations in Iran soon turned violent. A short while after the protests started a group of vigilantes, called "Ansaar-e Hezbollah", close to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) stormed a students' dormitory in Tehran.
They plundered and burnt down students' rooms and beat, injured and kidnapped them. According to the official sources of the Islamic Republic at least one person was killed in those attacks, but figures released by independent human rights organizations are higher. In response to the attacks against the students, the protests grew from the students' dormitory to the rest of Tehran and a few other large cities. But soon after, the movement was crushed by the Islamic Republic leaving many in jail, some killed and at least half a dozen still missing. The perpetrators of the attacks against the students remain at large today.
They plundered and burnt down students' rooms and beat, injured and kidnapped them. According to the official sources of the Islamic Republic at least one person was killed in those attacks, but figures released by independent human rights organizations are higher. In response to the attacks against the students, the protests grew from the students' dormitory to the rest of Tehran and a few other large cities. But soon after, the movement was crushed by the Islamic Republic leaving many in jail, some killed and at least half a dozen still missing. The perpetrators of the attacks against the students remain at large today.
