According to informed sources at least eleven people were arrested in the village of Gorab Zarmikh in Someh Sara County, Iran, while attending memorial services for Navid Behbudi, and at least 30 people were arrested during a memorial for Pooya Bakhtiari at Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery in Karaj, Iran.

Among those arrested at the cemetery is Houriya Farajzadeh, whose brother Shahram was killed by security forces in Vali Asr Square, Tehran, on 27 December 2010.

A number of people in attendance at the memorial service for Navid Behbudi at Beheshte Sakineh cemetary were arrested. Jelveh Javaheri, Forough Saminia, Kaveh Mozafari, Ahmad Zahedi, Hooman Tahriri, Faraz Roushan, Fahimeh Kameli, Amir Islami, Sarah Zaherkerdar, Azar Jafari and Mahrookh Roustaei, mostly women’s rights activists in Iran, after their arrest were transferred to a detention centre in Rasht.

Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) also reports that a number of people across the cities of Karaj, Tehran and Shariar, while attending memorial services for those killed in the November protests were arrested by security forces on Thursday 26 December. According to the report, in some cases those arrested were beaten by security forces.

In the city of Qazvin several people who intended to take part in a memorial serivce for Hamid Rasouli were arrested. Hamid Rasouli was killed in the November protests in Karaj and is buried in a cemetary in the town of Alvand, Qazvin.

Since Monday night security forces of the Islamic Republic have made public their attempts to prevent memorial services for Pooya being held at Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery by arresting his parents, Manouchehr Bakhtiari and Nahid Shirpishe, and their relatives.

On Thursday thousands of Special Forces officers’, plainclothes officers and members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militias were stationed in the streets, squares and also at various cemeteries, in particular at the Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery.

Pooya Bakhtiari’s grandmother said in a video message: “Security forces did not allow me to visit the grave of my grandson in the Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery’’. She added: “The nation came out, but they [security forces] did not let them in. I cried and begged them to allow me to go for just one minute to say my prayers, but they did not let me. They really harassed us.”

Security forces were also stationed in the streets and main squares of the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Mashahd, Shiraz, Behbahan, Shahriar, Islamshahr, Ghale Hassan Khan, Rasht, Tabriz, Urmia, Javanrood, Ilam, Mahshahr, Bandar Abbas and tens of other cities across Iran.

Referencing the widespread deployment of security and military forces, Special Forces vehicles, and vehicles carrying plainclothes officers at Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery, and the establishment of security checkpoints in the area, especially in section 26 where Bakhtiari’s grave is located, news network Ensaf News reported on “a strange atmosphere of surveillance” and the heavy presence of government agents, particularly near Bakhtiari’s grave . They wrote “the whole area is encircled by policemen. Between sections 28 and 30 there are approximately sixty policemen standing around. There are police at the top of the hill and in a small building, watching the paths.”

The network also reported on the arrests, especially of young people in areas adjacent to section 26 of the cemetery and wrote: “One security person grabbed hold of a girl and pulled her away and other members of the security forces helped him arrest her. At the end of section 30 the police arrested a young man and took him away in the same manner as the girl. One young woman who saw this yelled ‘leave him alone, you dishonourable people.”

According to eyewitnesses, the number of plainclothes officers at the Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery on Thursday exceeded that of uniformed police, and in addition to arresting those who had come to the cemetery to take part in the memorial service, they snatched the mobile phones of those people who were filming the widespread presence and violence of the security forces.

According to eye witnesses, on Thursday security forces and also members of the Revolutionary Guards were very harsh to anyone who shouted slogans. In one instance when a woman shouted “Dear Pooya, blessed is Your Soul”, others among the crowd repeated it and then a number of Revolutionary Guards and members of the Special Forces surged towards the people, started to beat them with batons and arrested several of them.

So far there is no news about the fate of the arrested people. While informed sources have confirmed that at least 30 protesting people were arrested in the Beheshte Sakineh Cemetery, other sources say the actual number is higher.