Iranian security and police forces systematically converted mosques throughout Tehran into operational bases, surveillance posts, and firing positions during the violent suppression of January's protest wave, according to a comprehensive investigation published by Iran International network. The report draws on intercepted radio communications, video documentation, and numerous eyewitness testimonies from the unrest that swept the country.
Evidence uncovered shows that on January 8 and 9, when massive crowds took to Tehran's streets and faced harsh government response, several central mosques in the capital served as assembly and operational points for regime forces. In one intercepted radio communication revealed in the investigation, security personnel can be heard discussing the deployment of forces and auxiliary equipment inside the Imam Hussein Mosque, located in northwestern Tehran. Eyewitnesses in the area reported that concurrent with the concentration of forces inside the prayer hall, electricity was cut to the neighborhood and surveillance drones circled overhead.
Additional testimonies point to a pattern repeated at multiple locations, including mosques along Andarzgoo Boulevard and the large Qolhak Mosque. Witnesses described how security personnel in civilian clothes or uniforms positioned themselves outside the buildings to provoke protesters and draw them in, after which additional forces emerged from within the mosques themselves, attacked citizens, beat them severely, and carried out mass arrests.
A particularly grave section of the investigation focuses on the use of mosque rooftops as observation posts and live-fire positions targeting crowds. An eyewitness from the Kashani Boulevard area in western Tehran recounted that after a stun grenade was thrown to disperse the gathering, security forces began firing at people from the roof of a nearby mosque. Another witness in the Nazi-Abad neighborhood in the southern part of the city reported parallel shooting conducted from the rooftops of mosques and Basij militia bases. According to reports, in several cases windows on the upper floors of mosques were broken to create firing slits, and some weapons were even equipped with laser sights.
Alongside the operational use, the investigation raises serious suspicions of planned provocations by the regime. Several eyewitnesses claimed that security forces themselves deliberately set fires or caused damage to some of the mosques, and in one case even left gas valves open before abandoning the site. These actions, according to assessments, were intended to create a false impression that protesters were damaging holy sites and public buildings—a claim repeatedly used by the regime's propaganda apparatus in Iran to justify the violent deployment of measures against citizens.
Exploiting civilian and religious facilities for policing and warfare purposes is nothing new in Iran, but its scale during the recent protest wave raises significant concern. Previous investigations by the network in the neighboring Alborz province uncovered similar use of public libraries as ammunition storage, schools as assembly headquarters, and cinema rooftops as firing positions. In the past as well, during the "Bloody Friday" events in Zahedan in September 2022, international human rights organizations documented regime forces firing at worshippers and protesters from mosque rooftops and prayer compounds.
The accumulating evidence from Tehran reinforces the conclusion that Iran's security apparatus has made houses of worship an integral part of its suppression and surveillance mechanism, while trampling on these sites and endangering the lives of innocent citizens.
