Protesters blinded by police in Iran

A GROWING number of Iranian antigovernment protesters are losing their eyesight owing to injuries caused by security forces firing shotguns and paint balls at their heads, according to a local medical group.

The Society of Ophthalmologists of Iran wrote an open letter to their president Dr Mahmood Jabarvand, saying: “During the recent protests, many patients have arrived at health centres with eye injuries caused by the impact of shotgun pellets, paintballs and similar objects.

“Unfortunately, in many cases the extent of the injuries has led to the loss of sight in one or both eyes.”

One Iranian Twitter user said she had lost her right eye while attending a protest in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. “The last thing my right eye saw was the riot police shooting at my face while smiling at me,” said Ghazal Ranjkish, 19.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, called protestors “ignorant mercenaries who are the fingertips of the enemy’s great plan against Iran”.

The protests, which began after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police, have shown little sign of abating, despite over 400 people being killed, according to estimates by human rights groups.

Iranian officials have portrayed the demonstrations as a conspiracy orchestrated by the West.