(Bloomberg) --

Iran’s government has intensified a crackdown on dissidents and public figures as nationwide protests and bloody clashes stretch into the third week. 

Unrest erupted in September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was detained over what authorities called improper attire.  

Conflicts turned more violent on Friday in southeastern Zahedan, near the border with Pakistan. Gunmen killed 19 people and injured 20 others in a “terrorist attack” on three police stations, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing the provincial governor.

It was unclear if the incident was related to ongoing protests across the country. The Islamist rebel group “Jaish al-Zulm” claimed responsibility, and among the dead was the local intelligence chief of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s state-owned Press TV said. 

Iran Protests Show the Depth of Nation’s Economic, Social Pain

On Friday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said it had arrested 263 people over recent unrest, including nine Europeans. It also said it had thwarted alleged “sabotage of two passenger planes.” 

Amini’s death provoked protests against compulsory veiling for women that became a law after Iran’s 1979 revolution. But they’ve spiraled into some of the fiercest opposition to the core principles of the Islamic Republic. The government has responded by mass arrests and clamping down on access to the internet. 

Read more: Iran Targets Journalists Covering Country’s Sprawling Unrest

In Tehran, where a semblance of order has been restored, citizens in many neighborhoods have taken to chanting against the country’s rulers from their windows and balconies. 

The government is showing an increasingly low tolerance for open display of dissent by cracking down on public personalities. 

On Thursday, security forces arrested Hossein Mahini, a former player on Iranian national soccer team and critic of the state’s response to Amini’s death, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. 

It followed the arrest of musical artist Shervin Hajipour over a now viral piece of music lamenting people’s hardships and aspirations in life under the Islamic Republic. 

Students held demonstrations in dozens of universities across Iran on Saturday, according to social media feeds. Separate clips showed students waiving their head coverings and calling for the release of political prisoners amid standoff with riot police. 

The gatherings were fueled by a campaign for public rallies in many major cities around the world on Oct. 1, in what could mark an unprecedented scope in coordinated protests against Iran’s ruling establishment.  

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