About 1,200 university students in Iran were admitted to hospital due to food poisoning a day before their anti-regime protest, leading many to suspect the role of the government.
In the past few days, students of Kharazmi and Ark universities experienced symptoms like vomiting, severe body aches and hallucinations, the Telegram channel of the national student union claimed on Thursday.
Officials have claimed that water-borne bacteria was the cause of the symptoms, but the student union believes that they were deliberately poisoned.
Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi the two journalists who first broke the news of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in custody of Iran's morality police have been branded as CIA agents by Iran.
According to a joint statement released by Iran’s ministry of intelligence and the intelligence organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards on Saturday, both journalists are currently lodged in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.
Three people were killed after Iranian forces opened fire at scores of protesters in the western town of Mahabad, according to local media reports.
A scuffle had broken out between security forces and the agitators who were targeting the government buildings in protest against the killing of an anti-regime protester, Ismail Moloudi.
The protesters had gathered there after Moloudi was buried in the city.