HAUNTING images show piles of abandoned shoes in Iran after the brutal regime burned protestors to death.
The chilling scene comes after Iran’s totalitarian regime reportedly trapped surrendering protestors in a historic bazaar and burned them alive.
This horrific act of barbarity that has already been likened to “Iran’s Holocaust.”
The bone-chilling picture, taken in the city of Rasht, captures the aftermath of the massacre on January 8.
Shoes – once belonging to protestors – lie scattered and abandoned, silent witnesses to the horror that unfolded.
Eyewitness accounts say regime officials set fire to the popular marketplace, trapping demonstrators inside and opening fire on those who tried to escape.
Arash Sigarchi, journalist and former political prisoner in Iran, shared the image on X with the caption: “If this is not a crime against humanity, what is?”
The managing editor of Voice of America’s Persian Division compared the picture to the display of victims’ shoes at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, branding the murderous acts “Nazi-like.”
“These shoes in Rasht are not art,” Suren Edgar, vice president of the Australian-Iranian Community Alliance, wrote on X.
“They belonged to people trapped after regime forces set the historic bazaar on fire and shot those trying to escape.
“The imagery is unmistakeable – an Iranian Holocaust unfolding in real time.”
According to organisation Iran Human Rights (IHR), the victims of the massacre had surrendered to security forces before being slaughtered.
Harrowing footage also shows the burned-out, smouldering remains of the bazaar, a haunting reminder of the brutality.
Iran has remained under an internet blackout since January 9.
This has effectively cut the country off from the outside world and allowed security forces to operate with near-total impunity.
“The mass killings started right after the internet blackout,” said IHR’s founder, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
The death toll from protests, which erupted last month in response to soaring living costs, is now feared to have topped 16,000.
A further 330,000 are feared to have been injured, including countless innocent civilians.
The victims include children and pregnant women – with the figures compiled by dozens of overwhelmed hospitals across the nation.
The Middle East had braced for US strikes on the Islamist regime after Trump promised brave protesters “help is on the way” after 17 days of bloody street strife.
Iran had vowed to fast-track trials and executions of those captured during the deadly protests but Trump then accepted assurances that “killing in Iran is stopping”.
But an Iranian refugee in contact with protesters told The Sun: “The regime is buying time by lying to Trump and they will do what they want once he loses focus.
“People are pleased that there have been no executions so far but that could change very quickly.”
President Trump has also called for an end to Khamenei’s rule – branding the pariah a “sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people”.
The Ayatollah is also reportedly plotting to extend his nationwide internet blackout indefinitely – plunging the country into permanent “digital isolation” as part of the crackdown.
Khamenei’s henchmen are reportedly scheming a plan to sink its 92 million civilians into “absolute digital isolation”, according to Filterwatch, a digital monitoring project.
The Islamic Republic is switching its old model of “mass internet censorship” in favour of a “permanent shift” toward a “sealed intranet”.
Only those with a “security clearance” will be able to reach the outside world, Filterwatch said.
The current blackout is the longest Iran has ever seen – with analysts claiming it may have been an attempt to help cover up the massacre on protesters.
The protests have exploded in brutality since they kicked off on December 28.
What originally sought to oppose deepening economic hardship has since spilled into all 31 provinces and were bolstered by calls from Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran, to overthrow to government.
Among the dead was Iranian textiles student Rubina Aminian, 23, who was reportedly shot in the back of the head at a protest in Tehran.
She joined protests against the Iranian regime after a day of classes at Tehran’s Shariati College.
