Protesters who have been camped out across the drained basin of River Zayandeh Rood in the central Iranian city of Esfahan woke up to a pre-dawn raid by riot police Nov. 25. Videos on social media were replete with chaotic scenes as tents were set on fire, with police teargassing the protesters to put an end to their two-week sit-in.

In an attempt to highlight the plight of excruciating water shortages and express their frustration with mismanagement of water resources, the protesters had chosen the riverbed — the bloodline of local farming — which has now turned into an apocalyptic barren land.

Fars News Agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that the protesting farmers had already issued a statement a day before, officially declaring an end to their protests before setting a deadline for the authorities to address their demands. The hard-line outlet blamed the tension on "thugs" and "opportunist elements," who had been trying to "divert the protests" but were arrested after "police acted with promptness."

Hours into the raid, Interior Minister Hossein Dehghan was attending a ceremony inaugurating the governor of the adjacent province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, which happened to be the site of similar water-related rallies last week.