TEHRAN: Iranian official media said on Wednesday 3,117 people were killed during protests which first erupted in late December and which activists say were suppressed with a deadly crackdown.

A statement by Iran’s foundation for veterans and martyrs, cited by state television, said 2,427 people in that toll, including members of the security forces, were considered under Islam to be “martyrs”, calling them “innocent” victims.

The authorities have condemned the protest wave as a “terrorist” incident characterised by violent “riots” fuelled by the United States. Rights groups however say thousands of protesters demanding change were killed by direct fire from the security forces.

Hundreds of buildings burned

Protesters attacked and burned hundreds of private and public buildings in Tehran, including 314 government buildings, and burning 155 more, as well as damaging hundreds of banks, shops and mosques, municipal officials told a group of journalists during a conducted tour of the Iranian capital on Wednesday.

The Tehran municipality showed journalists roughly a dozen charred buses lined up in the parking lot of a depot in Tehran.

Iraj Lotfizadeh, head of bus operations, said “22 buses were completely charred across all of Tehran” on Jan 8, when demonstrations exploded in size and intensity, with more vehicles damaged the following day.

Nearby, soot covered parts of the blue-tiled ceramic entrance of a mosque where walls were blackened and doors damaged.

Banners that once hung printed with prayers and Quranic verses were torn down and strewn about the floor alongside several burnt motorcycles.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2026